‘Women’s participation in media discourse goes down’
The already low level of women’s participation in media discourse seems to be getting worse.
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The latest findings from the Media Foundation for West Africa’s gender-monitoring project show that women’s participation in media discourse has gone down.
A monitoring report on the level of involvement and participation of women in public discourse on radio in Ghana shows a 10 per cent reduction from December 2013, despite efforts by government and non-governmental organisations to improve gender equity at all levels.
Media Foundation for West Africa
The report, compiled by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) for the month of June 2014, shows that out of a total of 2,172 people who featured on programmes monitored, 1,813 (83 per cent) were men with only 359 (17 per cent) being women.
The report also shows that out of the 24 radio stations being monitored under the project, Bolga-based Radio Gurune and Nsawam-based Fawe FM featured the least number of females in their programmes.
With regard to political party affiliates who featured in the programmes, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) recorded relatively higher women discussants than the other political parties.
The report said, “it is quite unfortunate that in spite of efforts by civil society organisations, women’s groups and activists, women’s participation in media discourse instead of appreciating is rather reducing as evident in monitoring findings of MFWA”.
Considering the fact that women’s empowerment and participation in governance and decision-making processes is critical for Ghana’s democracy and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal 3 – promoting gender equality and empowering women – the MFWA has called on all media houses and political parties to adopt gender policies that can help increase women’s voices in public discourse and engagement in politics and governance.
Monitoring
The monitoring of women’s involvement and participation in media discourse in Ghana forms part of activities under the West Africa Human Rights and Democratisation Programme by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and its partner, Foundation for Security Development in Africa (FOSDA) with funding from IBIS-Ghana.
The project is aimed at positively influencing gender policies and practices among media organisations and political parties in Ghana to help increase the participation of women in the discussion of national issues and debates that influence policy.