Media Reaction to a Woman Murdered at Work Is 'Nothing to See Here'

Janine Jackson

Jessica Kutz (19th, 11/21/25): "At the same time that tradeswomen are urging more to be done to address gender-based violence in the workplace, the Trump administration has curtailed resources."

Media coverage focuses on violence: “If it bleeds, it leads.” Yeah, but only some violence, sometimes. How much have you read, for example, about Amber Czech?

She was a 20-year-old welder in Minnesota, and as the 19th’s Jessica Kutz (11/21/25) notes, in one of the rare media acknowledgements, “Women make up just 6% of welders in the country, and, as with other male-dominated occupations, it came with the risk of isolation and bullying.”

In Czech’s case, that bullying ended with a male coworker allegedly bludgeoning her to death, because, as he told law enforcement, he didn’t like her, and had been planning to murder her for some time.

I saw reports on this from tradeswomen outlets, social media and some local outlets. But it seemed to barely rate as a national story; that coverage came largely from outlets that lean heavily on crime coverage (e.g., New York Post, 11/13/25; New York Daily News, 11/13/25; People, 11/14/25).

It has nothing to tell us, evidently, about broader trends or influences. In this case, it seems, it’s just an errant individual. Nothing to see here.

The 19th reported:

Last fall, the Tradeswomen Taskforce and Equal Rights Advocates, a nonprofit focused on gender justice in workplaces, won a $350,000 grant to address gender-based violence in the workplace.

The Trump administration canceled that program.

The New York Times' Ross Douthat (11/6/25) hosted a debate between two conservative women over exactly how feminism had been bad for the workplace.

Meanwhile in Italy, parliament passed a law recognizing the crime of femicide, or gender-based violence against women, becoming the 30th country to do so. It's far from a panacea—difficult to prosecute, and reliant on a carceral solution—but it acknowledges the problem and creates a way to clearly track it. In the United States, femicide rates are estimated to be more than seven times higher than in Italy, yet it prompts little media attention or outrage (Ms., 4/17/25).

The New York Times apparently didn't have space to cover Czech's murder, but they did have room for Ross Douthat to host a debate (11/6/25) on "Did Women Ruin the Workplace"—later changed to "Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace?"—and for David French (10/23/25) to muse on "How Women Destroyed the West."