The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), based in Washington, D.C., is an internationally active organization working to improve the status of women in media. The IWMF has created programs and tools to help women find practical solutions to the obstacles they face in their careers and lives as they work in media. The IWMF's work includes a wide range of programs including international reporting fellowships grant opportunities and emergency crisis funding. IWMF carries out research on the status of women in news media, examining both working conditions and production of content related to women. IWMF helps to develop resources to support the safety and health of journalists. IWMF presents the Courage in Journalism, Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism, Wallis Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists, and Lifetime Achievement Awards.
The safety of women journalists has been a major concern of the IWMF since its founding in 1990. The organization recognizes that women, Transgender people, LGBTQIA people, and people of color experience marginalization and disproportionate levels of harassment and violence as journalists. The IWMF advocates for press freedom both nationally and internationally. Through programs such as Newsroom Safety Across America, the IWMF seeks "to establish a safety ecosystem within local newsrooms". IWMF is one of five founding members of the Journalist Assistance Network, formed in 2025 to provide resources and training in legal and safety matters to journalists and newsrooms in the United States. IWMF tracks cases of journalists in danger and actively appeals to international governments to release journalists in captivity and protect journalists in danger.
History The International Women's Media Foundation was formed in 1990 to strengthen the role of women who work in news media through information sharing, networking, and training, and to further freedom of the press on a global scale. The group organized a meeting of one hundred women journalists from fifty countries, the "News in the Nineties" conference, held November 11–13, 1990, in Washington, DC. Speakers included Steven Ross of Time Warner, Barbara Walters of ABC-1V, and Katharine Graham of the Washington Post.
In March 2011, the IWMF organized an international conference of women leaders at George Washington University to discuss gender equity in the media. The IWMF's Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media (2011), based on two years of research, examined 522 media companies in 59 nations worldwide. The report set a baseline for the study of women working in the news industry, and revealed significant imbalances in position and payment. Results varied between countries, with women holding only a third of jobs worldwide. Women tended to be under-represented at higher levels of management, even in countries where they neared parity in overall employment. Over half of the newsrooms reported that they had sexual harassment policies. However, respondents from both developed and developing countries commonly responded that they perceived such policies to be unnecessary and did not see sexual harassment as a problem. This perception is at odds with research documenting harassment against women journalists, both in the field and within newsrooms.
In 2013, the International Women's Media Foundation established the IWMF Emergency Fund to aid female journalists. IWMF has also partnered with The Black Journalists Relief Fund to provide emergency funds and therapy funds for black journalists.
In 2018, the IWMF surveyed women journalists, 90 percent of whom stated that online harassment had increased over the past five years. Ten percent reported experiencing highly concerning harassment within the past year, including death threats, identity theft on social media, hacking of email accounts, doxing, and physical threats sent to private accounts. IWMF encourages all levels of news organizations to engage in risk planning, prepare in advance, and have clear policies and practices for supporting journalists who are attacked.
In July 2020 the IWMF helped to organize the Coalition Against Online Violence, a group of more than 80 organizations internationally working to combat online attacks. CAOV seeks solutions and provides collective support for journalists and others affected by online violence through its Online Violence Response Hub, which was launched in 2021.
In 2021, IWMF worked with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, UNESCO, and the International News Safety Institute to publish practical legal guides for journalists and organizations, including Online attacks against journalists: Know your rights, The Practical Guide for Women Journalists on How to Respond to Online Harassment and Gender-Sensitive Safety Policies for Newsrooms: Checklist and Guidelines. Content includes discussion of specific legal tools and of journalists' legal rights in 13 countries. Further resources were published in 2022, including a Mental Health Guide for Journalists facing Online Violence, and A Guide for Protecting Journalists and Newsrooms Against Online Violence. These resources are also relevant to fact-checkers, who are increasingly experiencing harassment.
In 2023 the IWMF worked with the American Press Institute to develop an inclusive guide for journalists dealing with online harassment and threats. They worked with PEN America to develop Digital Safety Snacks, short online videos describing steps that people can take to protect themselves from online abuse.
From June to December 2024, IWMF, CAOV and others carried out an #ElectSafely Campaign in support of journalists covering contentious elections worldwide. IWMF carried out safety trainings and events with PEN America and other partners as part of a U.S. Election Safety Summer campaign.
In 2026, the IWMF was designated as an 'undesirable organization' in Russia.
Reports Many of the IWMF's resources are published in multiple languages. Some appear in country-specific editions. 2011, Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media (IWMF and UNESCO). 2018, Attacks and Harassment: The Impact on Female Journalists and Their Reporting 2021, Online attacks against journalists: Know your rights 2021, The Practical Guide for Women Journalists on How to Respond to Online Harassment 2021, Gender-Sensitive Safety Policies for Newsrooms: Checklist and Guidelines 2022, Mental Health Guide for Journalists facing Online Violence (in English, Farsi, and Arabic) 2022, A Guide for Protecting Journalists and Newsrooms Against Online Violence
Awards Given
The International Women's Media Foundation awards are annual prizes given by the IWMF to recognize significant work by women journalists: the Courage in Journalism Award (awarded since the IWMF's foundation in 1990); the Lifetime Achievement Award (awarded from 1991 to 2018); the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award (awarded since 2015); the Gwen Ifill Award (awarded since 2017); and the Wallis Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award (awarded since 2021). The awards are presented yearly at ceremonies including New York, Washington, D.C. Los Angeles, and Beverly Hills, California. These awards "celebrate women journalists who set themselves apart by their extraordinary bravery". Awardees can work in any country and be of any nationality.
Courage in Journalism Award Courage in Journalism Awards "honor women journalists who face danger to uncover the truth and raise the bar for reporting under duress". Courage in Journalism Award winners have included Claudia Duque (Colombia), Tsering Woeser (Tibet) and Vicky Ntetema (Tanzania), Najiba Ayubi (Afghanistan), photographer Nour Kelze (Syria), Bopha Phorn (Cambodia), Arwa Damon (Lebanon), Solange Lusiku Nsimire (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Brankica Stanković (Serbia), Gulchehra Hoja (Radio Free Asia), Solafa Magdy (Egypt), Yakeen Bido (Syria), Jessikka Aro (Finland), Cerise Castle, Lynsey Addario (USA) and Victoria Roshchyna (Ukraine).
Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award The Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award was first given in 2015. Niedringhaus, an internationally acclaimed German photographer who worked with the Associated Press photographer, was killed in Afghanistan on April 4, 2014, when an Afghan policeman shot into her car. Niedringhaus had previously received an IWMF Courage in Journalism Award in 2005. The award in her honor was created with an endowment from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The inaugural recipient was Heidi Levine (2015). Other recipients include Kashmiri photojournalist Masrat Zahra (2020) Andrea Bruce (2018), Stephanie Sinclair (2017) and Fatima Shbair (2021).
Gwen Ifill Award The Gwen Ifill Award was first given in 2017, to recognize "an outstanding woman journalist of color who carries forward Ifill's legacy of mentorship, leadership and commitment to diversity in journalism." The inaugural recipient of the award was Michele Norris. Other awardees include Tasneem Raja (2024) and Nikole Hannah-Jones (2019).
Wallis Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award The Wallis Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award was created in 2021 to honor journalists who have been unjustly imprisoned as a result of their work. It was first awarded in 2021 to Katsiaryna Andreyeva and Darya Chultsova from Belarus. In 2022, Chinese columnist Huang Xueqin received the award.
Lifetime Achievement Award From 1991 to 2018 IWMF also honored women who had had groundbreaking careers in journalism by giving them the Lifetime Achievement Award. According to the IWMF, Lifetime Achievement Award winners "kicked down barriers to make it possible for women all over the world to find their voices and make them heard". Award recipients include the first black female editor of a newspaper in Zimbabwe, Edna Machirori (2013), Alma Guillermoprieto from Mexico (2010), Amira Hass from Israel (2009), and Edith Lederer from the United States (2008).
Fellowships The IWMF offers a variety of opportunities in support of women journalists, including early career journalists, through fellowships, small grants, and funds. These include:
Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship In collaboration with MIT's Center for International Studies, The Boston Globe and The New York Times, the IWMF annually presents the Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship. The fellowship is awarded to a woman journalist who has at least three years of professional experience and covers human rights or social justice issues. The program is structured flexibly to provide the fellow with opportunities for academic study and research at MIT and the development of reporting skills, covering topics related to human rights at the news outlets.
The program is named for Elizabeth Neuffer, a 1998 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award winner and Boston Globe correspondent who was killed in Iraq on May 9, 2003. The fellowship commemorates her memory and advances her mission of promoting international understanding of human rights or social justice. Past Neuffer Fellows have been from Colombia, Australia, Iraq and the United States.
Lauren Brown Fellowship IWMF also gives out small grants through the Lauren Brown Fellowship. The Lauren Brown Fellowship supports women and nonbinary journalists whose projects expose under-reported and critical issues. It can be used by early career journalists for professional development and skills training.
The program is named for Lauren Alix Brown. Brown was a journalist, editor, and mentor. She was part of the founding team of the international digital publication Quartz, where she worked from 2012 to 2019. Brown died of breast cancer in 2019 at the age of 37.
Kari Howard Fund for Narrative Journalism The Kari Howard Fund for Narrative Journalism awards small grants annually to support "the reporting and publication of compelling human stories".