The latest rounds of media stories about sex and drugs among teenagers might prompt many of you to write to media scope, but one of the most surprising reactions we've had was to a story early this year about local radio, when many of you wrote to complain about the absence of women in local radio. Now some interesting statistics have emerged: women working in the independent radio sector in Ireland are significantly under-represented in the area of programme-making, according to a study released at a "Women on Air" seminar in Galway last Friday.

The study found that in both commercial and community radio, women occupy mainly sales and administrative positions, while men are most prominent in programme making. The data highlights the under-representation of women at senior management level in the commercial sector, where only 5 percent of top executives and 39 percent of middle management are female - yet women constitute 77 percent of the general administration and sales staff. In the programme-making area of commercial radio, women have higher qualifications than men, with 82 percent having a third-level qualification compared with 42 percent of men. Similarly, 45 percent of female compared with 22 percent of male programme-making staff have had training in the last 12 months.