Olga Paskina, CEO of National Media Group, took part in the session "Equal Opportunities in the Age of Digital Economy" at the annual Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. Ms. Paskina shared her views toward a problem of inequality in media industry and beyond. According to Ms. Paskina, the issue of discrimination is less relevant in Russia than in the West.
"The objective of media is to defy stereotypes and form a woman image in the public eye by creating content being able to comply with essential social values and keep up with the ideology of equality," said Olga Paskina, CEO of National Media Group. "Western newsrooms are dominated by men, there are 70% of them among news journalists, while the ratio of men and women creating films in Hollywood is 5:1. That's why we globally see the world through men's eyes."
Ms. Paskina also said that the situation in Russia is considerably different from that. National Media Group shows quality at all levels of operating activities — in news and entertainment broadcasting, and in the film-making segment. The Group's assets do not show any imbalance in this regard.
As part of discussion, Olga Paskina said that the possible challenge of the future is implementation of artificial intelligence and Big Data in the personnel selection process, since IT and engineering jobs historically showed imbalance against women. Our objective is to prevent the robots' impact on domination of gender status over professional one.
Participants of the session "Equal Opportunities in the Age of Digital Economy" discussed the issues of more active and equal engagement of women in social, political and economic life, as well as opportunities opening for women in the context of global economy transition to the age of digitalization.