You’ve heard the phrase behind every man stands a strong woman. Now, in many cases that may be true. But, there are plenty of competent men. This editorial just isn’t about them.

We could not let this month to celebrate women go by without recognizing the great women who make the news possible in Limestone County.

First there’s so many local leaders who are female: Councilwoman Dana Henry, Holly Hollman, and Kim Glaze who are just two of many from the Mayor’s office, Athens-Limestone Hospital President Traci Collins, Chamber President Pammie Jimmar, Economic Development President Bethany Shockney, and not to be left out, the whole staff for the county commission – just to name a few.

The News Courier staff is all women, from our circulation staff to advertising, editorial, and leadership. Historically, newsrooms have been all, or majority, male, but we’ve seen a shift in the demographics of journalists.

In findings released in 2022 by the Reuters Institute and University of Oxford, women made up 40 percent of journalists in 12 markets around the world, including the United States. But, for top editorial positions they found no clear trend towards further gender equality in top editorial positions worldwide. The U.S., however, did report 50 percent of top editors in the outlets included in the study were women. That was up from 47 percent in the previous year, and it was the only market where men were not the majority. The percentages varied significantly across the world. For example, in Brazil only 7 percent of top editors of the included outlets were women.

In the markets that were studied, more women working in journalism did not correlate to more women as top editors in the same data. Keeping with Brazil as an example, 49 percent of the journalists were women despite the low percentage of women as top editors.

What we’re seeing here is just one example of that glass ceiling women have been talking about breaking for years. It is great that the demographics seem to be shifting to more equality in the field overall. The U.S. is showing that it’s possible to get more women in leadership despite a lower percentage in the field. The report shows just 27 percent of journalists included in the outlets from the findings in the U.S. were women. So, despite the way our newsroom looks, we are not the same as other, larger newsrooms.

It is only one example of change, slow and steady, like many other industries and governments. But with each passing year, the glass ceiling seems to fade as more women take a seat at a new table.

As we take our seats, we’re not standing behind anyone. We are right here in front of you – still banging on that ceiling to keep creating cracks for the generations after us who will break the invisible barrier.