As the title suggests, the project explores the frequency with which women appear in French television media.

By analysing data on speaking time across different channels, genres, years and days of the week, we seek to answer a simple but important question:

how present are women’s voices on French television, and how has this situation changed over time?

To do this, we examine: long-term trends (2010-2019), daily patterns of speaking time on public versus private channels, differences between television genres, and finally, how two major channels, BFM TV and Canal+ Sport, divide speaking time between men and women.

Consider this a guided tour through French television, with each representation answering a key question about gender presence.

Ready to see if women are finally holding the mic?

How has the representation of women’s voices on French television evolved over the decade 2010-2019?

The answer depends on the channel!

This graph illustrates the changes in women’s speaking time on several major French TV channels between 2010 and 2019.

Some channels show strong improvement, like Animaux, France 2, France 5, and TF1, all rising by around +10%.

Overall, no uniform trend emerges: while some channels show a notable increase in women’s speaking time, others exhibit a significant decline.

Specifically, the channels Animaux, France 2, France 5, TF1, and LCP/Public Sénat experienced an increase in women’s speaking time ranging from 8.7% to 12.6%. In contrast, Canal+ Sport, LCI, BFM TV, I-Télé/CNews, and La Chaîne Météo recorded a decrease in this metric.

A comparison between these two groups reveals marked differences.

In the first group, the rate of increase is relatively consistent, around 10%, whereas in the second group, the decreases vary substantially.

Canal+ Sport and LCI experienced modest declines of 0.8–1.6%, BFM TV and I-Télé/CNews showed more pronounced decreases of 4.4–7.2%, and La Chaîne Météo exhibited the most significant reduction, with a drop of 17.5%, representing the largest absolute change among all the channels analyzed.

Do public and private channels give space to women’s voices at the same times of day?

Throughout the day, there are some moments when private channels provide slightly more space to women compared to public channels.

However, the graph clearly shows that, overall, public channels tend to give greater visibility to women.

In the early morning (5–7 a.m.) and between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., there are no significant differences between the two types of channels. Nevertheless, at certain times, the gap becomes more noticeable.

For example, at 8 a.m., private channels show a women’s speaking time rate of 29.3%, while public channels experience a drop from 29.5% to 25.3% between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Two hours later, the situation is reversed: private channels reach about 31.2%, whereas public channels peak at approximately 37%.

Another relevant pattern appears during the evening and night (8–11 p.m.), when the private channels’ rate drops significantly below 26%, reaching around 2.5%, while public channels maintain a relatively stable value of about 30%.

In which types of TV programs do women speak the most and the least? And did things improve from 2019 to 2020?

We already analyzed the women’s speaking time rate of some french channels, now let’s do it more in general basing our analysis on the channel category.

The chart presents a comparison of data from 2019 and 2020 across different TV genres: Entertainment (subdivided into Variety, Games, and Other Programs), Music, News (subdivided into Journal and Magazine), Documentary, and Sport.

In most TV genres, the percentage of women’s speaking time increased from 2019 to 2020. Notably, Music and Entertainment-Games/Other Programs saw a significant increase of approximately 6.3%. In other genres with growth, including Documentary and Sport, the increase ranged between 0.3% and 1.8%, with Sport remaining the category with the lowest proportion of women’s speaking time overall.

However, not all genres experienced an increase. In News-Magazine, the percentage decreased slightly by 0.2%. The most striking change occurred in Entertainment-Variety (which includes talk shows, comedy sketches, etc.), where women’s speaking time dropped from 47.3% in 2019 to 35.1% in 2020, a decrease of 12.2%.

This contrasts sharply with the other Entertainment subcategories and is notable because Entertainment-Variety had the highest Women’s speaking time in 2019.

Is speaking time equally shared between men and women on BFM TV and Canal+ Sport on weekdays and weekends?

Not really.

We looked at BFM TV and Canal+ Sport to see if women actually get a chance to speak, and the results are… well, a bit one-sided.

Both charts show the distribution of speaking time between men and women on TV, comparing weekdays and weekends/holidays.

In both cases, men clearly dominate the speaking time. But…

Women are making a weekend comeback!

In fact women’s share increases slightly during weekends for BFM Tv, even thought, they never reach parity, the weekend boost is definitely a great sign of progress.

Conclusion

This project shows that women’s voices on French television have become more visible over time, but progress remains uneven and strongly dependent on context.

From 2010 to 2019, several major channels recorded substantial increases in women’s speaking time, while others lagged behind. This suggests that improvements are not systemic, but rather linked to specific editorial choices made by individual channels.

Daily patterns highlight further differences. Public and private channels offer similar levels of women’s speaking time for large portions of the day, but diverge at key moments, particularly in the morning and late evening. Overall, public channels tend to provide more stable and higher visibility for women, while private channels show sharper drops at certain hours.

Genre-based analysis confirms that women’s representation varies widely across program types. Although most genres experienced modest improvements between 2019 and 2020, sport remains the most male-dominated category. At the same time, the sharp decline observed in Entertainment-Variety illustrates that gains are not guaranteed and can reverse even in genres where women were previously well represented.

Finally, the comparison between BFM TV and Canal+ Sport shows that speaking time is still largely dominated by men on both weekdays and weekends. A slight increase in women’s speaking time on weekends, particularly on BFM TV, points to a small but notable shift, though parity is still far from being achieved.

In summary, women are speaking more on French television than in the past, but their presence remains fragile, uneven, and highly dependent on channel, genre, and time of broadcast.

Sources