Women Climbing the Ladder: Experiences of Affirmative Action in South African Media

Abstract

 The aim of this study is to examine what effect an extensive affirmative action programme has had on a group of black women in the South African media, and how they perceive how existing power structures affect their everyday experiences within their respective media companies. The empirical base is an interview study with eight black women who hold or held top editorial positions in South Africa. Drawing on Bourdieu’s field theory, the results suggest that there is an escape from journalism as other forms of symbolic capital have not managed to outweigh the negative capital of being a black woman in South African journalism.