Gender scholarship can fix key gaps in representation

When Dr Yemisi Akinbobola of Birmingham City University, an award-winning journalist, academic, consultant and co-founder of African Women in Media (AWiM) contacted me to moderate a session on gender and media scholarship in Africa during a three-day conference (December, 3- 6 ), I hesitated to say yes because of so many commitments. 

Out of respect for her great achievements, I would honour her and do my part, knowing how much energy and brilliance she brings into conversations about African women in media. Also, I passionately share in AWiM’s vision, that one day African women will have equal access to representation in media. 

The fifth annual conference was no doubt an indicator that this vision is possible.  The roundtable brought together academics in gender and media studies to identify the gaps and opportunities in gender scholarship and education in Africa. 

There would not have a better way to reflect on the16 days of activism to end gender based violence than to participate in the round table discussion. 

 The United Nations-led global campaign of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is a much needed advocacy tool because of the glaring reality that many women and girls are still greatly impacted. 

These days are significant as they start on the November  25 and end on  December 10, which is Human Rights Day. 

Human rights and gender equality remain issues close to my heart. They also remain problematic in many ways.  Spending two hours talking and discussing about gender and media scholarship was truly rewarding. 

Two questions in particular got us reflecting. What will it take for gender to be mainstreamed in media scholarship? And how can we decolonise structures and institutions in order to advance women’s issues in media scholarship?

It may seem, the answer to the first question is the second. In order for gender to be mainstreamed in media scholarship, the starting point is decolonising structures and institutions to ensure these advance women’s issues in media scholarship. Most people rarely see the point about structures and historical injustices. They point to the fact that liberalisation has allowed everyone to have equal access. They find trouble recognising that most structures and institutions harbor intricate aspects of inequality on the basis of gender. 

I recently had the fortune of being educated, while giving a key note address, by a journalist, arguing that there were really no women to invite to interesting public affairs programmes. People who strongly believe that there are no barriers to women’s participation in media are blind to the often glaring realities of inequality in newsrooms. They do not recognise, that who makes news and our newsroom culture for the most part privilege one gender. 

Both media (especially in industry) and higher education offer significant resistance to ideas of gender mainstreaming under the guise of meritocracy and, therefore, harbor more concrete glass ceilings. There are issues of perception that tend to define the path of progress for women and lead to women leaving media and scholarship. The structural and institutional barriers are rarely addressed by policy, both national and institutional ones.

We also have to look beyond the numbers. There is little use citing the number of female news editors if the newsroom culture remains the same or offers little opportunities for women who hold management positions. We must also be mindful of which women occupy these spaces and if they have gender consciousness to be able to create positive impact.

In terms of opportunities, technology offers a great leverage for women to bypass gatekeeping practices that keep them out of media. Yet, they may also widen the gaps depending on which women have access, the attitude towards technology and their level of digital literacy. Deepening gender in media scholarship and higher education would require focused newsroom policies as well as university policies supporting mainstreaming gender.

We recognised the power of tokenism in the academe. The idea that one gender course has been included curriculum can fall short when we look into issues of mentorship in light of existing Faculty, research supervision capacity for gender in media scholarship, and deeper engagement with the community of scholars.   We need to document what efforts have been made in higher education institutions to level the ground for women to join and succeed in scholarship, particularly in the field of journalism, media and communication. The next two columns will address what issues might be relevant for policy at higher education level or media.

Ms Maractho (PhD) is the director of Africa Policy Centre and senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University.                      

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