Top Banner
Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life- Achievements ,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective on Media and Advocacy. By Marian Angela Kyei Airport West Hotel,Accra November 17-18, 2010
38

Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Jan 11, 2016

Download

Documents

Aron Poole
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Page 1: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements ,Relevance

and Prospects: A Perspective on Media and Advocacy.

By Marian Angela KyeiAirport West Hotel,Accra

November 17-18, 2010

Page 2: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Outline of Presentation: Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements ,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective on Media and Advocacy

Introduction: Gender themes over the decades Trouble shooting: gender issues and their relevance in Ghana Status quo: an environmental scan of gender parity statistics,

Women rights & Gender issues in Media / Advocacy Changing trends of gender relations/mainstreaming in the media

industry; Assessment of women in the media industry especially in terms

of leadership roles & participation in decision making. Inhibitive and push factors that militate against or support gender

progression, Change and Change factors: The causes or external catalysts that

reversed the gender dynamics, if any Achievements: Whether gender mainstreaming efforts have made

any impacts in the media industry. Gaining traction- understanding the cultural dimensions,

traditional, religious, ethnic factors & the national psyche that makes a significant impact or otherwise in terms of traction of gender mainstreaming issues

The Way forward for Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps (general)

Page 3: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Troubleshooting gender issues in the Ghanaian media Have there been specific gender related efforts in your

area of enterprise? Have you benefited from gender mainstreaming ? How & What impact has it made in your work?

Should gender issues still be considered a major developmental issue in Ghana? Why?

What is the ultimate result being sought by gender mainstreaming activities in Ghana in general and in our particular area of work? Where did we start from , where are we and where do we want to be?

Do we have adequate statistics (Data) to know where we were, where we are and what is left to do?

Page 4: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Troubleshooting gender issues in the Ghanaian media

Are the issues of Affirmative action for women in the 1990s as relevant as it is today?

Which roadmap are we using as benchmarks? What are the significant differences in the scale of empowerment? ie ( Progression from Discrimination and exclusion to ??? What is the ultimate? ) Is this achievable in all sectors/professional fields?

Are the achievement indices based on a general outlook or based on disaggregated levels eg women in formal vrs informal sector, rural &peri-urban vrs urban, productive working groups (18-30’s) vrs 40-60 year groups, less

How well has Ghana (women) addressed the concerns of the African gender indices at all levels of empowerment or inclusion?

Page 5: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Introduction-The road to female emancipation Some Gender themes over the 3 decadesGender Equality in sharing power (bridging gender gaps)Eliminating discrimination against womenParticipating in decision-making at different levels

Programmes Gender & Affirmative Action for Women Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against women

(CEDAW), Beijing Declaration & the Platform for Action (1995) Millennium Summit(2000) World Summit(2005)

Globally and nationally, these developments have led to activities and initiatives from awareness creation/ sensitization to legislative and policy reform with varying degrees of success.

Page 6: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

African Gender Development Index by the Economic Commission of Africa Tool to assess gender gaps in Africa and measure progress.

Understanding concepts of gender equalityWomen empowermentIdentification of the range of women’s

concerns egReligiousLegalPoliticalSocial-CulturalPhysicalEconomic

Page 7: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Affirmative action concept & Gender considerations in Ghana- Affirmative Action : refers to policies that take factors

INCLUDING "race, color, religion,gender,sex or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group,...

- 1992 Ghanaian Constitution: Article 17 on Equality & freedom from discrimination

- 17(1) All persons shall be equal before the law- 17(2) A person shall not be discriminated against on grounds of

gender, race, colour ethnic origin, religion, creed or economic status…”

17(3) …’discriminate means to give different treatment to different persons attributable only or mainly to their respective descriptions by race, place of origin, political opinions, colour, gender…whereby persons of one description are subjected to disabilities or restrictions to which persons of another description are not made subject or are granted privileges or advantages which are not granted to persons of another description.

Page 8: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Constitutional provisions on –Women’s rights (Article 27 1-3) Note : Constitution Art 1.the constitution shall be the supreme law of the land

and any other provision found to be inconsistent with it shall to the extent of the

inconsistency be void.Special care for mothers during a reasonable period

before and after childbirth, to be paid during these periods

Provide facilities for pre-school children to enable women as primary caregivers to realize their full potential

27(3) women shall be guaranteed equal rights to training and promotion without any impediments from any person

Page 9: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Gender parity indices/statistics Female adult literacy rate in Ghana 1970 =16.6%now estimated at 65.9%Literacy rate of young literate female to

males (15-24 years) estimated at 95.7%Gender parity index of young literate female

to malesprimary level 97 Secondary level 87

Page 10: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

The media & advocacy landscape More than one hundred and sixty six (166) radio stations More than forty (40) general newspapers and

magazines registered with the National Media Commission, the media has been effective in setting the national agenda and most Ghanaians have their say and perception of national affairs through the media

Popular areas of advocacy by the media/Advocacy-Women health issues- Brutalities & human rights abuses-Domestic violence-Children and child careFocus on women in informal sector and less privileged

Page 11: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Media Advocacy Groups: (Women in Broadcasting (WIB) WIB (1995) as a media advocacy group concerned with gender imbalances in the

mass media. Its members are employed at public and private radio and TV stations in Ghana.

The organization’s aims are as follows: • To change the negative representations and images of women on television, • To increase women and children’s participation in national and local debate on radio and

television. To achieve these objectives WIB members use their positions as programme producers to

give an account of issues of women and children. Apart from this advocacy function WIB organizes

training programmes for women and children in order to strengthen the role of women in Ghanaian media and to remove stereotypes in the radio and TV programmes

Media advocacy-Womec (Women Media and Change) ICT training for 15 female journalists to demystify complexities associated with ICT tools and to use it more effectively in their work

Laudable but often linked to personalities rather than an effective and representative media advocacy group for the generality of the targeted group

Page 12: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

What are the gender issues in the media industry /advocacy

How are the twin issues of gender empowerment and equality or gender parity fully accommodated by the media industry?

Practicing true equality between men and women in decision making

Low leadership positions/ roles of women in media hierarchy and general participation issues and its impact on women’s contribution to change and development in the workplace

Is there a gender wage gap in the media industry???

Page 13: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Media organizations & women leadership issues

NMC- leadership since 1992 Constitution –no woman chairperson inspite of representation on the commission

GJA – established since 1949- women leadership very recent (2)School of Communication studies- Audrey GadzekpoGhana Institute of Journalism- Former board headed by Mrs

Ademola Film Institute – NAFTIState Owned Media Boards –GBC. Times , GNA,GraphicPRINPAGSWAGPrivate media- women in top positions tied to ownership

structure- ADA community radio, Daily Guide, Meridien FM.Tema.

Magazines (virtually defunct obasima-kate abbam, Awo-audrey, 2nd image- nikki boa amponsem)

Media advocacy networks –WOMEC,WIB , Women in health, etcProminent women in the media-broadcasting (visibility) vrs

print

Page 14: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Changing trends of gender relations/mainstreaming in the media industry-observationsIn the early days of affirmative action gender desks were

created in most media houses (now mainly defunct).

Pages /features dedicated to gender sensitization and gender advocacy in the print media and airwaves. This is still in existence –

High recruitment of women into media houses (no conscious policies in place though)

Women promoted to Head Desks / News editors /Production

Very slow shift from ‘soft issue areas’ to ‘male dominated’ sections such as politics, crime coverage, sports

Page 15: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Changing trends of gender relations/mainstreaming in the media industry-observations

Women as presidents of the GJA, (GJA est.1949 .2 women prez only in the last decade)

Heads of media training institutions Representation on NMCRepresentation on boards of state-owned media

institutionsWomen as editors, station managers, owners of

media institutions few but positive.Media Advocacy for external gender

considerations are well covered while advocacy for women in media directly has been relegated.

Page 16: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Positive points-Achievements in the media industry The profession comes first before your sex so gender equality is

well entrenched Men and women entitled to equal pay for equal work generally Generally treated as equals with regards to professional

competence No “conventional” or organizational barriers placed in the way

of women to compete in specific areas of the industry High levels of participation of women in most areas of the media

industry in terms of journalism practice and core media aspects Organizational demographics , rank and work experience often

the basis for promotions across sexes In advocacy –capacity ,commitment and interest in the area are

the determining factors than the sex of the person Recognition of the value and representation , equality of women

as key actors in news gathering, presenting and post production in some cases eg show editors/producers etc.

Page 17: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

How are the twin issues of gender empowerment and equality of media women fully accommodated by the media industry

Generally positive, however sublime and ‘unwritten’ conventions place women in ‘deputy positions’.

Women in top level positions often linked to other professional backgrounds eg- legal, finance, HR rather than professional women journalists in top ranking ‘journalism related jobs

Male dominated environment is the status quo reinforced by the fact that most heads or line managers are or should be male to ensure authority is maintained.

Unconscious effects of our acculturation and socialization processes –Women trained to be subservient (take back seat roles), chase for anchor jobs rather than investigative journalism etc

Over expectations of the empathetic roles of women in the workplace hence those who are assertive, firm and principled get names such as ‘bitch’ ‘ice queen’ etc

Female reproductive and domestic responsibilities get in the way of their competitiveness in seeking leadership roles where both merit and experience are required.

Page 18: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Inhibitors to women in the media workplace environment low participation in negotiations that limits the visibility,

negotiation skills and influence at the workplace

Inability to take up post training academic courses at early stages places men in a more advantageous position than their female counterparts

Fears of accusation of sexual impropriety, sexual harassment limit a majority of women from seeking higher positions

Women accepting cultural stereotypes and reinforcing them eg- going for treasurer positions instead of higher more competitive roles especially elected positions

Lack of assertive women and those who are assertive are often ridiculed and judged harshly should they top it with challenges in their homes.

Page 19: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Inhibitions:Weak networking abilities

Women to women relations in the workroom- differences in orientations and expectations. Female subordinates tend to exploit the empathy card or resist women heads more strongly than their male counterparts

Women take backseat roles unconsciously- low volunteerism for decision making activities.

Perception of women to ‘stay within’ proscribed educational levels in order not to be the boss at home (not to be seen as more intelligent than your partner and wreck your home. Value labels attached to societal considerations matter.

Page 20: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

General Socio-cultural inhibitors Males/females pick proscribed gender ideologies through

their upbringing and these permeate the work environment unconsciously-turn female colleagues into secretaries or other non related activities

etc

Gender orientations are thus tied to the cultural norms prevalent in the communities where the individuals grew up and they in turn seek to impose these norms on others at the workplace

Parental management of roles of the girl and boy child impact on gender culture, attitudes and motivations for leadership roles (girls-cook,boys-work)

The cultural trap engenders fear of success among females ,a dependency syndrome, creates low confidence such that (both men and women see assertiveness as misplaced in a woman)

Page 21: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Change and Change factors: The Causes or external catalysts that reversed the gender dynamicsHigher levels of female literacy and competitiveness at academic levelsHigher entry of women into training schoolsReligious , Cultural and Political tolerance-shifting beliefs and recognition

of the ‘power, usefulness and multiplex roles of the girl child’Decades of sensitization programmes and the sublime effect of itPositive traditional practices /systems that show consideration for female

leadership roles ‘queen mothers, abusua payin, care-givers, matrilineal systems etc

Advances by female role models in other fields of endeavour –from clergy to secular jobs

Constitutional backing , subsidiary legislation, gender sensitive policies that protect women

The desire by women to break ‘glass ceilings’ and venture into no-go areasMentoring and Role models of Visible women especially in the media eg

Gifty Affenyi Dadzie, Audrey Gadzekpo, Maggie Amoakohene Akua Dansua etc(WHERE ARE THE WOMEN)

Gravitation towards merit based promotional systems rather than favoritism/nepotism by women

Page 22: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Gaining traction-debatable issues for review Gender mapping : distinguishing mainstream affirmative efforts in

formal and informal sectors, women in public and private life. Age dynamics , rural vrs urban etc

Would women in leadership positions in the media or other sectors accelerate the growth of gender mainstreaming efforts?

Are the same quality and value benchmarks used to assess the effectiveness of men vis their female counterparts at the workplace by both males/females.

What are the thresholds of tolerance for males versus females at the workplace and how does this affect gender mainstreaming efforts?

What is the impact of women personalities’ on gender development and visibility- ie The Roles, Visibility and Persona in Gender development in Ghana

How can women on top translate to effective women empowerment at the workplace?

Page 23: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Gaining traction-debatable issues for review Resolving conventions and organizational policies that override

gender mainstreaming efforts

Do women employees see the workplace as gender insensitive?

Is equal opportunity and access to the media industry commensurate with participation as envisaged under gender mainstreaming?

Effectiveness of sublime gender mainstreaming as against agitation method –issues of traction

Is there a road map for the diverse sectors and who is championing the cause for the media woman?

Which gender considerations appeal more to the media – focus on the vulnerable and less endowed rather than formal sector gender inadequacies??.

What is expected of media women in the efforts of gender affirmative action and how do the media women themselves envisage their roles to be? Balancing the act with their core mandate as journalists

Page 24: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Prerequisites for improving traction-Gender mainstreaming efforts to address these issues and make documentation accessible

Constant awareness creation of institutional culture and implications and how to adapt and modify rather than agitate to suit women only- higher levels of resistance with the latter.

Capacity building : Upgrading of skills at intermittent intervals (orientation programmes, online summer or short courses etc)

Learning to use and adapt to new technologies –ICT tools and information

Job placements must be meritorious –ie women to strive to have the necessary qualifications or experience required to fight for the due position or promotion

Taking up more challenging assignments and stepping outside the ‘box’ eg radio and television engineering, technical aspects

Improving competitiveness alongside male counterparts

Invest in lobbying, advocacy and networking (ie intra and inter women groups)

Highlighting issues of sexual harassment in the workplaces ???

Page 25: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Positive attributes that can be molded to improve gender mainstreaming

1. Mentoring , 2. Teamwork, 3. Listening & information sharing, 4. Consensus building ,5. Co-operation and networking

6. Adaptation to masculine work environment ,7. Or finding a way around the male ideals of organizational

structures, 8. re-organizing approaches to task performance and solving

problems, 9. Getting round the ‘(masculine reference point for all

workers)’10. Empowering women through capacity building and

consistent orientation. 11. Gender desks to be reactivated.

Page 26: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

What could be done differently - Addressing the issues of women's invisibility to improve their access to

leadership positions etc (WHERE ARE THE WOMEN CONCEPT)

-Moving the debates from the angle of proponents and opponents of gender issues to balanced reportage of facts and seeking collective solutions from all segments of society including males

-Collate data on the varying impacts of gender mainstreaming and affirmative action on different sections of women in the society and of particular ethnic, cultural or religious orientation .the differences will be significant in assessing areas and the type of strategy to adopt for example : fighting for policy or legislative reforms cannot be standardized in all spheres. In other areas, appeals and a recognition of the multi-task functionality of women may make better inroads.

-Need to document a disaggregation of societal pressures that impact negatively on the growth and development of women in the workplace.

Page 27: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

What could be done differently

- Need to identify socio-cultural nuances and the roles and impact on the African gender indices, the feasibility of improving cultural positions to accommodate modified gender themes

-documentation of prejudicial perceptions of both men /women towards women in leadership should be identified and analyzed, women to women relations at the workplace and its impact on gender mainstreaming, and then options made available to guide those who decide to venture into leadership and other affirmative roles.

Greater collaboration and networking needed to build consensus for raising the status of women

Using male advocates to enhance acceptance by the male population of gender issues (debatable but worth trying)

Page 28: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Doing things differently?-Raising the issues

-Do media workplaces have masculine work environments ?

-What is the nature of female representation and at what levels, what are the areas of female concentration and the inducement factors?

-Does the general institutional culture lead to the development and growth of women laterally and vertically?

-Are there visible or sublime workplace constraints to the development or visibility of women ? eg in giving of assignments, scheduling media tasks and areas to cover, nominating women for additional training

Page 29: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Doing things differently?-Raising the issues

- How do we address the gender imbalance in editorial comments, front page issues that attract the attention of duty bearers and the public?

- how do we improve goal effectiveness of women to compete on equal grounds?

-Are there empirical studies of wage differentials among males/females that needs to be addressed?

-What ideals should women in the media environment strive for in the empowerment continuum?

-What are the differences in practice with regards to women in the public as against private sector media industry?

Page 30: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Doing things differently?-Raising the issuesAre there studies on gender gaps in the various

sectors to encourage the use of alternate gender affirmative resolutions

Are there timelines? Are there country-specific benchmarks for all sectors that women in the media can tap into or women in each niche area are to work out their gender peculiarities?

Is gender mainstreaming relevant in competitive fields of endeavour?

How do we manage cultural perspectives/values and value labels of ourselves and others, the positives and the inhibitive factors by appreciating traditional gender relations and maximizing the benefits .How do we strike the balance?

What are the roles of religion and ethnicity in shaping a better gender subculture in Ghana

Page 31: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Personal Experience sharing as a media and advocacy professional: lessons learnt along the way,

Learning to adapt to the environment without seeking undue advantages

Coming into the field with the merit based approach Learning to do things and incorporating feminine perspective where

the approach by male counterparts is austere.Learning to speak my mind without being condescending of male

counterparts Learning to engage both males and females through consensus

building Taking up leadership roles and decision making functions with little

supervisionBeing assertive and yet empathetic-Multi-tasking myself but balancing traditional roles so as not to feel

shortchanged in any aspectUsing less confrontational approaches to affirming my status /roleMaking my participation in any endeavour count –if you learn how to wash your

hands you are given a chance to eat with the elders Reliance on supportive traditional systems – family and social networks

Page 32: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Experience sharing –personal challengesDealing with males who have very strong stereotyped roles

for women –placed women in restricted boxesAs a younger female dealing with older male counterparts

and participating and making cogent suggestions- balancing the act with notions of respect for the elderly versus innovative ideas

being mistaken or titled as an ‘underling’ when working with strong male personalities

Presumption of others that your role is based on a sexual relationship and the need to take years to re-orient them to your value addition to the area of work

General male intolerance of female assertiveness in seeking due rights

Page 33: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Way forward What should the gender roadmap or continuum be? How are we

prioritizing the issues?

From discrimination/lack of recognition to…???RecognitionAcceptanceRemoval of discriminatory practicesParticipationLevel of involvement –equality and equityOptimal participationFull status

Page 34: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Way forward-highlightsNetworkingMentoring and role modeling to minimize cultural

stereotypesStudying workplace culture and improving women's’

impacts and contributionsGender mapping and cataloguing progress for

dissemination-gaining tractionCreating a gender sub culture to override cultural

stereotypesShifting from ‘soft issues’ to all –round issues and seeing

advocacy issues in all aspects and championing sameMinimizing dependence on quota systems in areas were

merit based measures are prescribed indicators and offering quality (tokenism)

Advocating against tokenism especially in terms of political appointments

Page 35: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Way forward-highlights

Encouraging adaptability of women role models to have a blend of ‘male’ and ‘female’ work place characteristics

Call for in-house educational capacity building and ‘virtual training programmes’-ICT Age for women to ensure that they exploit their academic potential.

Undertaking studies on women to women conflicts and its impact on empowerment issues

Enhancing visibility of women in high positionsEncouraging database development /documentation of

gender efforts Balancing the act between gender conscientization and

feministic approaches to resolving conflicts or decision making

Increasing ‘affirmative action for men’ in soft issues areas to also get their perspective and to use this to generate the needed change in their counterparts eg domestic violence, child abuse issues,

Page 36: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Way forward- Media specific highlights Media advocacy has tended towards external challenges of women and children and

related events and barely on workroom challenges need to start addressing intra-gender issues

Lobby government to consider more female representation or a woman as the Chairperson of NMC.

NMC to consider Women Board chairpersons for State owned media for different management perspective

GJA –lead umbrella associations to encourage gender sensitive culture in the media institutions through award schemes for best gender practices or coverage of issues

Women high flyers in the media industry tend to be women from other professional fields and are accorded the due recognition. More opportunities to be created for women in the professional media jobs

Develop Who is Who Directory (Profiling Women high Flyers, Those who break through glass ceiling /Prepare Biographies) as reference materials for others to emulate

Take up coalition building or institute frontline women advocacy initiatives

Advocacy campaigns to target women sensitive issues especially with private media org.

Page 37: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Conclusions Women empowerment on a silver platter is ‘glazed tokenism’ .

The opportunities offered by shifting masculine paradigms, cultural, political and religious tolerance should be taken advantage of now more than ever.

Women need visibility as the most effective ‘beacon’ of gender mainstreaming to reorient the society.

Personality value judgements on the roles of women would be effectively balanced if women adopt the ability to empathize and yet be firm.

Regular Professional and skills development, managing multi-task duties , networking and advocacy should be effectively sustained in the drive to ensure that the changing perceptions of women are seen in a more positive light.

Page 38: Topic : Promoting Women’s Participation and Bridging Gender Gaps in the Professions and Public Life-Achievements,Relevance and Prospects: A Perspective.

Thank you for your attention!!!!