Women worry most about crime and the economy, a top US TV producer has claimed.

Cable News Network (CNN) International's executive producer, Pam Benson, discussed women and media coverage, the role of the media in the coverage of international affairs and international affairs and global concerns at a Hamilton Princess reception for women last week.

Ms Benson told the audience that a recent survey on what women saw as major issues revealed that traditional women's concerns, like abortion, did not rank high on the list.

But she said the economy and crime were the most important issues facing women.

She also pointed out that "women's issues'' were the same as men's issues, but women had a different perspective and approached them differently.

"For example, women thought that government was part of the solution,'' Ms Benson explained. "Men thought that government was part of the problem.

"It is not that the issues are so different, but the approach is different.'' And Ms Benson revealed that journalism in the US was becoming a "pink collar'' job instead of a white collar one.

"More women in the US are getting into journalism.'' And she used CNN as an illustration saying that in 1980 half the people in the newsroom were women, "and it has stayed that way''.

But Ms Benson admitted that there were not as many women in CNN management positions as there could be.

She also said that women journalists had a different approach to covering a story from male colleagues.

Women had an interest in people and how issues affected people, Ms Benson said, while men focused on government.

"Women gravitate to how things impact people and tend to be a little more passionate about a story,'' she added.

Ms Benson has been with CNN since it started and she moved to its Washington office in 1981. She was appointed to her current role in 1990.

She has produced top programmes for CNN including coverage of the US Democratic and Republican conventions, Russian elections from Moscow, and the G7 Summit in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

"I am not a women's producer by any stretch of the imagination,'' she stressed earlier to The Royal Gazette . "I am the international affairs producer operating out of CNN's Washington Bureau.

"We do deal with women's issues at times. But most of my work surrounds policy issues in Eastern Europe and Russia.

"We also do a programme called Global View for our international networks and that is where we have had the opportunity, occasionally, to explore issues that are very directly related to women.'' Ms Benson was brought to the Island by Akinstall International, a local women's research and development group, to attend a round-table breakfast meeting at the US Consul General's official residence as well as to speak at the reception.

Valerie Akinstall said she decided to invite Ms Benson to Bermuda because she believed there was a need for local women to consider issues affecting them and women around the world.

At the round-table breakfast meeting with local women's advocates, politicians and community leaders, Ms Benson said the discussion focused on Island racial issues.

WOMEN WOM CLUB CLB