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German Media's Gender Equality Watchdog Loses Critical Funding After Nine Years

A decade of tracking women's rise in German newsrooms could vanish overnight. Without funding, who will hold media accountable for equality now?

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1 min read
The image shows a graph depicting the number of grants by gender gap focus over time. The graph is...
The image shows a graph depicting the number of grants by gender gap focus over time. The graph is accompanied by text that provides further information about the data.

German Media's Gender Equality Watchdog Loses Critical Funding After Nine Years

ProQuote Medien, an organisation tracking gender equality in German media, faces an uncertain future after losing government funding. The Federal Ministry's decision cuts off support after nine years, leaving a €600,000 gap over the next three years. Key projects, such as surveys on women in leadership and professional conferences, now risk being abandoned.

Since 2012, ProQuote Medien has monitored the share of women in senior editorial roles across major German publications. These include Bild, Der Spiegel, Focus, Stern, Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, and taz. Their data showed progress: the proportion of women in top positions rose from 14.39% in 2012 to 39.9% in 2022.

The Ministry had backed the group's biannual surveys and studies on structural barriers for women in journalism since 2017. But in a recent decision, officials rejected ProQuote Medien's latest funding application. Board member Katharina Preuth noted that the urgency to strengthen women's voices in media appears to have faded.

Over the past three years, the organisation has recorded a decline in women's representation in senior editorial roles. Without funding, its work—including regular surveys and conferences—will likely stop. Since the Ministry's rejection, political discussions on gender equality in media have stalled, with no new initiatives stepping in to fill the gap.

The loss of funding leaves ProQuote Medien without resources to continue its long-running projects. Surveys on women in leadership and efforts to address structural obstacles in journalism now hang in the balance. Without intervention, the organisation's data collection and advocacy work will end, removing a key source of accountability for gender equality in German media.

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