Book 2 - Ebu

Guidelines on gender-ethical reporting
Special focus: Facts, trends and impacts of media coverage
about women in government
In order to improve the practice of journalism, to make it more inclusive and diverse,
it is necessary to adopt critical forms of journalism and writing, beginning with the
following insights:
• Society took a long time to take the struggle for women’s rights seriously. The lack
of consideration for history and the progress made hinders understanding and
access of women to public office, particularly to the highest public office of the
presidency or prime minister.
• Women began to hold public office and political positions much later than their
male counterparts. This is due to the delay in defining women as subjects with
rights and recognizing their capability for decision-making, holding professional
and leadership positions.
• One of the most common recurrences in interviews or articles about women is
how they balance their domestic tasks while holding public office. This is one
of the ways in which journalists remind women that they have to fulfil society’s
expectation of them as mothers, wives and caregivers of the family. The standards
for men are markedly different: they are not asked about fatherhood or what they
do to fulfil their family responsibilities.
• Journalists should be mindful of the ways in which they describe women and
men so as not to make the mistake of using stereotypes that reinforce cultural
inequalities between women and men. The paths to political posts or public office
are diverse and the use of stereotypes can blur the real journeys individuals have
made to power positions.
• To contend that only men should address “hard” issues such as politics and
government contributes to an absence of female voices on these topics, leading to
a lack of diversity in positions and proposals. Many women are active participants
in academic research and in different “hard” issue areas. They are part of the pool
of experts who could be interviewed or quoted.
• The masculinisation of certain character traits and continual references to
masculinity in power narrows the possibilities for women’s action. This tends
to imply that women have of necessity to exude behaviour associated with
masculinity in order to become decision-makers, as if this were the only way to
participate in or to exercise power.
• When a female leader’s role in the family or private life is mentioned, she is
not only reminded of her absences or errors that are affecting “normal” family
development and what is expected of her, she is also concomitantly being warned
of the limits to progress that exist for her.
• Media reports on women in politics tend to focus on details such as their dress
style, wardrobe, diet and physical appearance, an approach that trivializes them,
devalues their work in public office and damages their credibility.
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