Media must embrace gender equity in full

The flurry of activities that accompanied the marking of International Women’s Day yesterday is clear indication of the importance of the female gender in society. An empowered woman, studies have shown, positively impacts the economic status of her family, employer and economic development of a country.

The media industry, a strategic player in the advocacy for a society in which women and men enjoy equal opportunities, has acted as the voice for policy makers, activists as well as government in the call for changing the attitudes of society on the importance of empowering and giving women an equal chance.

However, the news industry has failed to embrace this very change it preaches daily, faring poorly on matters of gender equiry in organisation leadership and promotion of gender balance in the content it churns day in day out.

A study released yesterday by Reuters Institute titled ‘Women and Leadership in the news media 2023: Evidence from 12 markets’ paints a gloomy state of women representation in media houses across 12 global news markets.

The study, which analyses the gender breakdown of top editors in a strategic sample of 240 major online and offline news outlets across five continents shows that despite the number of women working in journalism remaining very high, they account for less than a quarter of the top editorial leadership. Even as the percentage of women in top editorial positions varied significantly from market to market, the percentage of women top editors in Kenya has been on a decline in the past three years.

In 2021, female top editors accounted for 27 per cent of top editorial positions. The figure significantly went down to 13 per cent in 2022 and has remained constant in 2023. News media organisations should not only work hard to increase gender balance in leadership, but also increase gender balance in content— which means equality in the way women are portrayed in news content.

Other responsibilities to ensure an equal society for both women and men, the media should avoid use of language that stereotypes women, identifying unconscious biases and realise alienating the female audience harms corporate reputation.

Let’s remember, women are an untapped audience, and so this niche makes business sense for any media strategic leader.