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Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper speaks during a news conference at F. C. WoodWorks in Winnipeg Manitoba, April 23 2015.Reuters

Readers understand that news coverage must reflect reality, as tough as that is sometimes. But they also want what appears in print, on air and online to reflect them at times, and to be aspirational – to promote positive values.

At least that is the view of an Edmonton reader who contacted me to say how disheartened she was to see pictures of men dominate the covers of all but two sections in a recent Saturday edition of this newspaper.

"In many respects, these images reflect the reality of the corporate business environment in Canada," she wrote.

"I feel that the newspaper, intentionally or not, is not reflecting the female readership and the Canadian public. As a woman, I do not want to merely read the Arts or the Style section. Many women feel the way I do."

She raises an important point, not just about the images, but about gender balance in general because pictures have an impact. A study by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies found that most readers look first at a dominant image, so what's chosen matters.

However, I have to object when she complains that, while "Globe Focus does feature real women," one is shown "with a tight, ill-fitting top."

The image in question – a street scene in Caracas illustrating an article about Venezuela's economic struggles, food shortages and rising crime since the fall in oil prices – is a news photo. It's real, not posed or airbrushed, and sometimes real people wear tops that don't fit properly.

Still, I had to wonder whether the issue that had prompted the reader's complaint truly represents the Globe's weekend paper, which tends to be more feature-oriented than weekdays. So I went through 10 Saturday editions to see exactly what kind of photos were used.

A survey like this is by no means conclusive, but I did find far more images of men than women. In fact, there were twice as many (23 versus 11), among those used as main art on section fronts. The gap was even greater in the small photos used to point to inside stories – about three times as many showed men.

Why is this so? First of all, photo selection is driven by what (or whom) the article is about – the pictures must work with the words, so it hardly makes sense to show Christy Clark when the primary subject of a story is Stephen Harper. Also, editors must consider quality and choose the best image, the one that is most compelling and has the greatest news or artistic value.

In some ways, the preponderance of male images does reflect reality – political, business and sports stories are still more often about men than those in Style, Life and even Arts. Still, I don't really know why travel stories, as my survey found, have to show generic men skiing or at spas.

A few years ago, the paper's overall coverage of both women and diversity underwent scrutiny more scientific than mine – a month-long review conducted by the U.S.-based Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

The institute's goal is to have media outlets truly reflect society, in the belief that people who see themselves portrayed positively will strive that much harder to do well.

Its review showed that, in comparative terms, The Globe is reasonably well balanced. But there is still room for improvement, even if the paper does a good job of reflecting the rise of women business leaders and reporting the relative lack of them on corporate boards.

As the Edmonton reader observed: "Put us on the covers and celebrate us for our intellect – and perhaps we will be welcomed into the boardroom."

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