The Glass Ceilings 2018 findings show the challenge today is not about the numbers game, with almost equal numbers of women and men in the media, but sexism is alive and well in South African newsrooms, and taking ugly forms in the digital era.

An increasing salary gap between male and female journalists, subtle and overt sexism, being undermined and ignored for promotion, bullying (in the newsroom and on social media), exclusion from "the boys club" and decision making, "paying the family penalty" ie having children, are just some of the backlashes women journalists reveal in the biggest Glass Ceilings research in South Africa to date.

But numbers between women and men in the media have equalled out for the first time. Also, for the first time there was a percentage of people who identified themselves as gender non-conforming and for the first time there is a chapter on cyber misogyny in the study which was undertaken jointly by Sanef and Gender Links after about a year of research, interviews and analysis. The Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) sponsored the research.

In the countrywide research a total of 203 journalists/editors filled out the...