A-LISTERS | Glass ceilings, glasses raised

Back in 2006, when the very first study exploring the barriers faced by women in the media industry was released on the eve of Women’s Day, the attention was focused on the proverbial “glass ceiling” in newsrooms run by old boys clubs.

Cut to two decades later and the newest chapter of the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) survey points to a more elusive, but even more chilling, roadblock.

“Seventy-five percent of women in our survey said that their barrier to progress is cyber misogyny. This is a 45-percentage-point increase from the last Glass Ceilings survey in 2018. Then people said this may be an emerging trend — well, now its entrenched,” said Glenda Daniels at the launch of book she edited, which unpacks the 2026 Glass Ceilings survey, on Thursday evening in Parktown, Joburg.

This being a week in which the media itself made the headlines — a “bloodbath” at eNCA, with more than half its news and technical staff set to lose their jobs; staff at two Eastern Cape legacy newspapers not being paid on time; and a new round of restructuring looming at Media24 — breaking bread with news-breakers rather than the usual newsmakers felt fitting.

Particularly if it draws more attention to the targeted online harassment of women journos simply for doing their job.

And it helped that the venue happened to be a turn-of-the-century mansion with a dreamy jacaranda-lined vista of Joburg.

Stepping out onto the terrace of Emoyeni, the Edwardian mansion built in 1905, I am greeted by Kim Thipe, the highly regarded marketing whizz who is vice-chair of the Marketing Association of South Africa.

Kim, I learn, is there as executive director of the Centre for Applied Behavioural Change (CABC), a Cape Town-based non-profit that tracks online prejudice.

I also meet a senior researcher at the centre, Kirsten Pearson, who provided the book’s granular detail in a chapter exploring the effects of online hate on three journalists: Ferial Haffajee, Qaanitah Hunter and Pauli van Wyk.

“Cybermisogyny has become a silencing technique — it isn’t just something you can grow a thick skin about; it creates a chilling effect,” explains Kirsten, pointing to the case of Pauli, who resigned from her position at the Daily Maverick to take on a role in the corporate sector.

On to meeting Glenda, a professor in Wits University’s media studies department, before we all move inside the venue’s glass-box room, where I come across two women broadcasters who have been instrumental in media matters — Phathiswa Magopeni, who you could say is the press policeman, reining us in when needed as the head of the Press Council of South Africa, and Katy Katopodis, one month into her tenure as head of Sanef, the country’s foremost media freedom defender.

Katy is also the night’s MC, and as we sit down for dinner, she welcomes us before Glenda delivers her speech highlighting the findings of the study.

No time to listen in on the panel discussion or tuck into dinner — a choice of beef fillet with tomato jus, grilled kingklip with pea puree or herbed risotto — because another engagement calls on the other side of the city, in the interior-design mecca of Kramerville, for the launch of The Jozi Collective pop-up.

This is a hangout for the city’s bright young things to pick up cutting-edge threads from up-and-coming designers in a gallery-style space, where I meet model Phumza Tiya (in a fetching Imprint dress) and designer Mmaphuti Movundlela, whose eponymous label, Movundlela, is a “self-discovery of womanhood and the complexity of it”.

Keeping with design, Tuesday morning saw the launch of the latest instalment of Proudly SA’s campaign to get us all to wear local: the 2026 Local Fashion Police campaign.

While many of the fashionistas who arrived at Artistry — J Something’s bar-meets-theatre-meets-dining spot — were there to learn who this year’s judges were (designers Thabo Makhetha-Kwinana, Anel Botha, Mpumelelo Dhlamini and Rivaldo Louw signed up for this year’s instalment), I was itching to hear who had filled the rather tall stilettoes of Happy MaKhumalo Ngidi, who, after heading-up marketing for the countrywide “buy local” initiative for the past decade, announced her departure on Instagram in April.

Surprisingly, three months later, Happy’s chair is still vacant, although it was good to see CEO Eustace Mashimbye, wearing a fetching Boys of Soweto top, manning the fort.

A cute concept this year was a backdrop featuring black-and-white newspaper articles trumpeting the Fashion Police concept (ironic that while legacy media is hitting the skids, one of the biggest social media trends is recreating vintage newspaper front pages).

It was fun to pick out the mastheads of our sister publications Sowetan and Business Day, along with The Star and the Daily Sun.

But the clever so-and-so who put it up on the photo wall forgot to hit spellcheck because daily newspaper The Citizen was misspelt “Citizin”, while they opted to make up others, like “The Sowetan Times”. And clearly this paper isn’t cool enough because there was no sign of the Sunday Times....