"Fair gender portrayal in the media should be a professional and ethical aspiration, similar to respect for accuracy, fairness and honesty "

I recently led a comprehensive workshop on Gender Responsive Media that brought media practitioners from several key media houses in the country to ponder on how, we as a country can harness the capacity of the media in balancing unequal gender relations and promoting gender equality. The workshop broached on themes such as how the power of the media can be leveraged in advancing gender equality objectives.

Gender Based Inequality

While on the surface level, the society as a whole believes in equality of people regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, religion and economic status and all humans should enjoy same kinds of rights and privileges; It is only when we probe deeper that we start to see intricacies of discriminations; Gender based inequalities being one of notorious ones.

Women control only a small share of the world’s resource, have limited access to education and employment, and remain marginalized and excluded. Their family duties affect their careers in the public sphere and their unequal relations with men make them vulnerable to Gender Based Violence (GBV). Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) has been highlighted globally as a priority of many governments. This priority has been reflected in regimes such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. In the Declaration, the media has been featured as one of the 12 urgent actions required to guarantee greater equality and opportunities for women and men, girls and boys.

Role of Media in relation to gender equality

The influential power of the media to challenge and change people’s perception, behaviour, and impact on policy dialogue cannot be emphasized enough. Media as an instrument of communication plays two critical roles. One of reinforcing already existing social norms, it does this by feeding to society what it already knows and deems right. Secondly, the media has the capacity of educating society by providing it with new information regardless of how it is interpreted.

Similarly, when it comes to gender, the media plays into these two categories. Media practitioners can perpetuate positive and negative norms regarding gender. Concurrently, it can serve as a catalyst for change by challenging perceptions society holds on gender. Given, pervasive and deep-rooted nature of patriarchy that has left women globally marginalized and vulnerable. Media is increasingly being called upon to perform the latter role. For instance, coverage of Gender Based Violence (GBV) has an implication on knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of the public towards this social ill and its prevention requires action in amending social norms-in which the media can play a part in.

Dimensions of gender and media

Media is an instrument of change, but is it capable of introspection?

Gender integration in media is in three fronts. First and foremost is a balance in the profession. This entails proportion of men and women in employment in the sector, assignments issued, the place of women in decision-making and opportunities for growth and advancement granted to all genders. In a 2020 research report by African Women in Media and Fojo Media Institute on Barriers to women journalists in Rwanda, women cited misogyny, poor salaries and sexual harassment as main barriers from entering the media profession. This research echoes a 2019 assessment commissioned by the Media High Council (MHC) on the status of Gender in Rwanda media sector. Misogyny is reflected on predominant assigning of stories on "Politics and Business” considered as hard news to male journalist and stories in areas of "arts, education and health” classified as soft news that are "human-centered” to women. The study further revealed that sexual harassment of varying forms, serve as both a barrier of entry and progression in the journalism field. Respondents expressed that women are underestimated particularly in a situation of an all-male editorial team. In cases where gender parity is evoked in leadership, it is done in a tokenistic way. In addition, enough flexibility is not provided for them in their role of care giving. Respondent to the research report established a connection between gender roles and poor pay.

Secondly, is related to content, specifically the politics of gender representation. This component relates to portrayal of women and men, their reported role as active participants or passive observers, low or high-profile sources, their attribution as offenders or survivors, and their representation in the news and current affairs or in the other soft news.

Thirdly, is the equal access to media contents both for men and women; which greatly affects the balanced distribution and exposure of media contents to both genders. Similar to other Sub-Saharan countries, women in Rwanda have lower literacy rates than men. A 2017 report put out by the Gender Monitoring Office (GMO) on Gender and ICT established a gender divide in ownership of digital assets, access to internet and digital literacy that disproportionately impact women. These considerations provide constraints to accessibility and exposure to certain media contents.

In the workshop, one of the facilitators Ms. Immy Mulakatete applauded Ms. Jeane Marie Uwambayinema and Ms. Florence Umaliya who were female leads at Heza.rw and Imena news respectively.

Gender Responsiveness in content

The Executive Secretary of Rwanda Media Commission (RMC) present in the workshop quoted that "The voices we silence are the stories we miss." He was emphatic about the need for diverse voices in the media.

The lead facilitator Ms. Rebecca Asiimwe, a director at the Gender Monitoring Office (GMO) highlighted several ways that content reflect voices and visibility of both men and women. She posited that media practitioners need to understand gender as a social construct as this is detrimental to outputs of contents. This is the only way to guarantee that gender inequality is not depicted as natural and inherent. She highlighted that, with understanding of gender, there is a likelihood for a more gender sensitive and impartial stories and texts. With a recognition of gender, a narrator is prepped to contribute to breaking stereotypes and demystifying wrong cultural and social assumptions.

This understanding sets the pace for other transformations such as: utility of gender sensitive and impartial editorial language and a thriving of exposure for opportunities within the institution. By extension, women representation within the media as source of news and visibility in the public sphere increases.

In the workshop, questions were posed as to whether, the media makes an intentional effort to search for women experts or source in "hard” news or on topics and shows related to politics and business.

Gender Equality stories

Journalists present made a commitment to making gender issues mainstream as opposed to being relegated as "women-only” issues and allocating sufficient space, time and level of urgency to GBV stories.

How can the media narrate gender equality stories?

What emerged from the session is that the fourth estate can: highlight particular discriminations that women experience; impact of gender roles for both men and women; tell stories that challenge deep-rooted gender stereotypes by providing for instance an alternative vision of what masculinity is and stories on women ‘s empowerment in the context of stubborn gender inequalities.

The workshop played a critical role in empowering journalists to harness the huge potential they hold in altering the wrong perceptions held about women that have resulted in their degradation and marginalization in the country and by extension globally.

Gender equality means more than the equal representation of women and men. Achieving it means eliminating all gender-based discrimination and gender stereotypes in all areas of life.