Book 2 - Ebu

Guidelines on gender-ethical reporting
3. Economic news: Accounting for women
The Global Media Monitoring Project 2010 revealed that women’s presence in stories
on the economy stagnated at 20 per cent worldwide. Across Asia, the corresponding
figure was 15 per cent, and in India women appeared in an abysmally low 10 per cent
of such stories.
The persistent near invisibility of women in media coverage of economic news
mirrors the lack of recognition and underestimation of their contribution to the
economy in conventional economics and by many mainstream economists.
Sample story analysis
A news agency report 1 on the inaugural address by the economist prime minister of
India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, at the 44th Indian Labour Conference in February 2012
illustrates the gender blindness that still characterises much economic thinking and
coverage. The only reference to women in the reported speech reflects a patriarchal,
patronising and ill-informed approach to the complex question of women’s
participation in the labour force.
“Before I end I would like to mention two issues that I consider important. One of
the most under-utilised resources in our country is our women. Female labour force
participation rates are extremely low in our country and have remained more or less
constant over the past decades. In order to bring more women into the work force, it is
necessary to understand the constraints that they face in balancing their family and
work responsibilities. Although the provision of crèches is now built into our regulations,
including those for MNREGA, 2 this is clearly not enough. We would also need to make
provision for part-time work which would have the same characteristics as in full-time
employment. If this requires legislative changes, we should be prepared to do so and
begin working on a blueprint for making this a reality.”
—―Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India (and noted economist), speaking at the
44th session of the Indian Labour Conference, New Delhi, 14 February 2012
By the next day the press had latched onto the prime minister’s observations on
women workers and featured several stories variously headlined, “PM wants more
women to join workforce” 3 , “PM for equal benefits for part-time women workers” 4
and even “Reduce her burden” 5 .
1. PTI, “Committed to strengthening labour laws: Manmohan”, The Hindu, February 14, 2012.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2892291.ece
2. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, aiming to enhance the
livelihood security of people in rural areas of India by guaranteeing 100 days of wageemployment
in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do
unskilled manual work.
3. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2893934.ece.
4. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/economy/
5. http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article2893389.ece.
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