Geneva - Gender equality in the media is no longer an ideal but an imperative that must be urgently attained, says acting Director-General of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) Joe Rantete.
Rantete on Monday said global media are duty bound to advance gender equality as media is a critical power tool that can and should inspire women to break barriers.
Rantete is representing South Africa's Communications Minister Faith Muthambi at the first general assembly of the Global Alliance on Media and Gender (GAMAG) currently being held in Geneva, Switzerland.
“Media are duty bound to promote the rights of women, highlight achievements by women and to open the doors for women to take their rightful place in society and our respective communities.
“Unfortunately across the world, there is a trend where often women’s issues and achievements are mainly relegated to women’s publications. On the other hand, mainstream publications only tend to give prominence in supplements or so-called pages dedicated to women.
“This means that issues related to women are consistently being underreported across all media platforms. We are further hindered by the slow pace of transformation in our newsrooms and the boardrooms of media companies,” he said.
Rantete told delegates that South Africa supports the work of GAMAG, which brings together over 500 organisations and networks concerned with gender equality in and through the media across the globe.
Rantete said it is through the greater contribution of media that the international community can achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls as committed to in the Sustainable Development Goals on Gender Equality.
In South Africa, gender equality is entrenched in the Constitution and government has introduced a number of legislations, policies and instruments to advance women in the society.
The Gender Equality Bill accelerates the empowerment of women while the Employment Equity Act legally requires employers to work towards more equitable representation based on gender, race and disability.
“We have achieved women representation of 44 percent in Parliament, which ranks South Africa as one of the countries with the highest number of women parliamentarians in the world,” he said.
However, Rantete said there is a persistent funding gap which is a barrier to implementing effective gender equality.
“Our engagement must look at how we can access the required financial resources and garner the commitments we need to address this issue. We have to act now. Our interaction must lead to concrete steps to take us forward on our quest to change the status quo in media, financing and the role of women in our global society,” he said.
Gender Links CEO Colleen Lowe Morna said attitudes and mindsets have to change and unfortunately, very often the media is more part of the problem than part of the solution.
“Women are generally invisible in the media, women are half the population, yet a quarter of those views and voices are heard, but they always heard on certain topics, they are not heard on mainstream topics like the economy, politics and gender violence, they are essentially invisible.
“Women voices and views in the media are always heard on the soft topics such as entertainment and fashion ... it is not even the everyday issues that the majority of women are involved in. This is one of the biggest stumbling block in terms of achieving gender equality.”
Women Make the News Initiative
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has launched its 2015 Women Make the News initiative to promote gender equality in the global media.
Women Make the News is an initiative developed by UNESCO as part of the Global Alliance on Media and Gender, created out of the recognition that persistent gender inequality, both in terms of sources quoted in the news and of journalists delivering the news, is damaging to the overall push towards gender equality.
The Alliance aims to tackle gender inequality in the media by encouraging news outlets across the world to involve women in the sourcing, production, delivery, analysis and broadcasting of the news in order to create a global media that better reflects the voices and interests of women, as well as men. - SAnews.gov.za
