This article was originally published on Aug. 16, 2022.
Journalist, reporter and news anchor Shannon Bream, host of Fox Corp.'s (NASDAQ:FOX) Fox News Sunday weekly program, took to Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) to recount being fired from her first TV gig “by a man who told me I was the worst person he'd ever seen on TV.”
Beginning Sept. 11, Bream will become the flagship Sunday morning political talk show’s first permanent female anchor, as well as continuing in her role as Fox’s chief legal correspondent. The role was formerly held by Chris Wallace, who departed for CNN last year. CNN is owned by Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD).
What Happened: On Saturday, Aug.13, Bream offered inspiration to her 620,000 Twitter followers by sharing the process of how she overcame the harsh critique by her boss, who also told Bream that she would "never make it in this business."
“I was humiliated. I cried ... a lot. I prayed ... a lot,” Bream wrote before admitting “that man did me a favor.”
Bream spent months looking for other jobs in TV, struggling to get “anyone to return an email or a call” while watching her tapes. “There is always room for improvement,” she said, “and believe me I needed it.”
“I watched my tapes and got real with myself,” Bream said.
Bream also turned to her faith for guidance during the healing process. “I got a healthy serving of humility, and learned that God often allows us to walk through valleys — for our own good,” she said.
The series of tweets, which went viral, also highlighted the difficulties women continue to face in the workforce, not only juggling paid employment and responsibilities at home but the outright discrimination and abuse some women are forced to deal with, working in roles where the top executives and board members are mostly male.
The Challenges Women Face: The work-from-home transformation that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, three years after the #MeToo movement captured the public psyche, have helped to keep the problems women face in the workforce from the shadows.
While studies have shown women overwhelmingly prefer flexible employment with the ability to work from home, juggling work, household duties and children — often all at the same time — has added a huge amount of stress.
Deloitte’s 2022 Women at Work survey showed 53% of the 5,000 women surveyed reported higher levels of stress than a year ago, and "a whopping 46% felt burned out, and 33% had taken time off to deal with their mental health. Among women actively looking for a new job, 40% of women cited burnout as their main reason," according to Bloomberg.
On the positive side, working from home has allowed women the freedom to steer clear of the gender-based harassment commonly present in the male-dominated workforce. Women also enjoy the ability to be more present for their children, commute less and focus less on their appearance.
The Benzinga Take: The common thread between Bream’s account of losing her first job and the issues women continue to face in the workplace, even as the landscape continues to change, is perseverance. The fight for equal pay, equal opportunity and mutual respect is far from over, and Bream’s story provides encouragement to the millions of women who face unfair treatment and unnecessary obstacles based solely on being female.
In the end, Bream’s experience empowered her to make the personal changes she felt were required to fight for her dreams and become successful at what one man said she’d always fail at. Although Bream’s story is sensational, women around the world who have or will face and overcome similar challenges can certainly relate.
Photo: Alan Santos/PR via Flickr Creative Commons
