One More Woman: A Simple Pledge to Change the Face of Gender Representation in the News

Half the population. Just 26 per cent of the news. Latest data from UN Women has shown that despite years of progress on internal gender balance, women continue to be significantly underrepresented as quoted experts in broadcast, radio and print media. 

Authority in the public sphere is still disproportionately male, and while many businesses now track diversity metrics inside their organisations, there is far less obligation to scrutinise who represents them externally; who speaks, who is quoted and whose expertise is platformed.

A few years ago at With, we decided to do something to address this imbalance. As experts in helping businesses and their leaders communicate their story, we designed our With Women programme, offering high value free media training to women leaders. 

This year, we are evolving With Women into something bigger.

Alongside our ongoing commitment to delivering free, high-value media training to women, we are launching a new campaign called One More Woman with a clear, practical and collective call to action.

‘One More Woman’ – The idea is deliberately simple.

While we recognise that many media opportunities still need to sit with the CEO, we have to recognise we live in a world where over 90% of CEOs are men. But if more organisation committed to training and putting forward just one more woman on their speaker bench; one more woman briefed, prepared and proactively put forward for media interviews, the gender imbalance in the news would begin to shift, and quickly.

We are not asking businesses to overhaul their leadership teams overnight. We are not asking for tokenism. We are asking for one concrete, measurable commitment: expand your speaker bench by finding a woman expert in your business and adding her to your speaker bench.

Because when multiplied across hundreds, or thousands, of organisations, one more woman becomes hundreds more women quoted, interviewed and heard. It becomes new role models, broader perspectives and a more accurate reflection of the world we live in. And that is something we can all influence.

Why this matters now

Media visibility shapes reputation, influence and opportunity. The people quoted in the press are seen as authorities in their fields. They are invited onto panels. They are called back for commentary. They build profiles that extend beyond their organisations. But when women are underrepresented in the media, they are underrepresented in public authority.

The appetite is there. In 2025 alone, through With Women we trained more than 1,000 senior women to step confidently into media interviews. The demand is there too, with newsrooms including Sky and ITV calling for a broader pool of female spokespeople. And the opportunity is clear: organisations that champion more diverse voices in the media strengthen their employer brand and demonstrate a genuine commitment to doing better. In fact, 76% of employees and job seekers said diversity was important when considering job offers according to LinkedIn.

What is often missing is the systemic push from organisations to broaden who they put forward. That is what One More Woman is designed to address.

Our call to action

This year, we are asking our clients, partners, and the wider communications industry to make a simple pledge:

• Identify one more female employee with a specific area of expertise that it is valuable to communicate externally
• Actively put her forward for interviews, commentary and panel opportunities.
• Actively measure the gender representation in your company’s media exposure

This is not about sidelining existing spokespeople. It is about widening the circle of experts to champion – providing both value to influential media outlets and useful profile and exposure for your business.

We will be inviting organisations to formally pledge their commitment and to work with us to equip their future spokespeople with the skills they need to succeed.

Introducing: One More Woman – increasing gender diversity in your speaker bench

To support this next phase, we are launching a new, dedicated With Women session for in-house communications leaders and marketing directors. Importantly this session will be run for women and men who are allies for gender diversity in the marcomms space who will be an essential part of this shift.

Many comms professionals understand the importance of diverse representation. Yet they can often face internal barriers, from entrenched leadership habits to concerns around risk, readiness or reputation. Some may not feel they have the influence or authority to shift established spokesperson strategies. This new session is designed specifically for them.

With invitations opening on International Women’s Day 2026, we will host a Train the Trainers session ‘’One More Woman – increasing gender diversity in your speaker bench” on Tuesday 16th June for comms and marketing leaders. In it we will:

• Build confidence in identifying and nurturing new, diverse spokespeople.
• Provide practical frameworks to advocate internally for broader speaker benches.
• Equip comms leaders with the tools to prepare senior women effectively.
• Offer language and data to support the business case for change.
• Create a community of comms allies committed to driving representation from within.

This session complements our existing With Women media training for senior spokespeople, giving organisations a joined-up approach: meaning we are able to empower both the women who step forward and the leaders who champion them internally.

Participants will also receive access to future With Women sessions for their senior women spokespeople, ensuring that commitment translates into capability.

What success looks like

Success this year will be measured not by training numbers, but by impact — new voices appearing in influential media, women leaders gaining the confidence to engage with the press, and organisations strengthening their reputation by widening their speaker benches.

The gender news gap will not close on its own. But one more woman, multiplied across networks of committed businesses, is a powerful place to start.

If you would like to pledge, partner or learn more about the upcoming sessions, please contact us at withwomen@welcometowith.com.