health

Media coverage of violence against women reaches ‘dismal’ low, report finds

Analysis finds stories citing terms of misogynistic abuse fell to 1.3% of global online news in 2025

Media coverage of violence against women reaches ‘dismal’ low, report finds

TL;DR

  • Global online news coverage of violence against women and misogynistic harassment dropped to a low of 1.3% in 2025, down from a peak of 2.2% in 2018 during the #MeToo movement.
  • The coverage fails to address the root causes of abuse, such as gender inequality, power imbalances, and patriarchal norms, often overlooking the gender-inequality lens.
  • Male perspectives dominate when misogyny-related stories are covered, with men being quoted 1.5 times more often than women.
  • References to 'gender ideology', a term used by anti-gender equality movements, saw a surge of 42 times between 2020 and 2025, largely driven by US media.
  • Recommendations for improvement include putting female journalists and editors in charge of coverage, centering victims and survivors, and explaining the systemic issues that enable abuse.