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feminist political economy refers to highlighting the way the patriarchy interferes in terms of who owns what on a greater scale and how these relations of ownership are all gendered. when analyzing feminist political economy in the media, it is important to consider how little women are involved on a macro-(finance and investments), meso-(policy making and creation of products), and micro-level (representation of women as subjects) (Byerly et al., 2006). For example, according to a study done by Mellor (2013), a Palestininan head of a media outlet reported that the only reason to higher female anchors is to make sure that people will tune in to look at them. this is a perfect example because it represents how women in the workforce, more specifically in the media are both objectified and not seen as fit workers, and also hold no higher positions of decision making. If a woman was in his position, she would not reflect such values. Another example could be that only 1% of women who hold communication postgraduate degrees actually hold positions of ownership in media outlets, according to a study done by Melki et al. (2014).

References

Byerly, C., & Ross, K. (2006). Women and production: gender and the political economy of media industries. Women and Media: A Critical Introduction, 75–96.

Melki, J., and Mallat, S. (2014). Block her entry, keep her down, and push her out: gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and the disenabling legal and social environments that face women journalists in the Arab world. Journalism Studies, 17(1), 57–79.

Mellor, N. (2013). Gender boundaries inside pan-Arab newsrooms. Journal of Gender Studies, 22(1), 79–91.