The Alliance for Women in Media Africa (AWMA), a non-profit organization is to launch its maiden report on how to enhance gender equality and better working conditions for women in the Ghanaian media.
The report launch will be in partnership with the School of Information and Communication Studies (SICS) of the University of Ghana, on the theme, “Status of Women in the Ghanaian Media: Providing Evidence for Gender Equality and Advocacy Report.”
A statement released by the Alliance ahead of the launch revealed that, the report contains responses from interviews of 300 female media professionals across the 16 regions of Ghana.
Adding that, the publication was a product of a collaborative research between AWMA and SICS, with funding from the US Embassy Small Grants Programme.
The statement further explained that, the publication aims to serve as a resource for the engagement of different key stakeholders such as media owners, editors and managers, practitioners, and regulators.
as well advocate for better working conditions, smoother career progression, and a safer working environment for women in the media industry.
The report according to the statement forms part of AWMA’s advocacy programme; “Women in Media Rising” with the objective to provide baseline evidence for gender equality and advocacy in the news media.
“This report is a product of meaningful partnerships and collaboration, thus provides much-needed evidence to aid our advocacy work because women in media do experiences a lot of drawbacks- we know it, we feel it, and we talk about it,” it said.
It urged women in the media to use the findings from the report to act for equity to change things, adding, “our sentiments alone won’t give the change we want to see,” it said.
Without the evidence to back claims of gender practices in the Ghanaian media, they remained anecdotal, and efforts at correcting them could, at best, only be minimal in their impact.it opined.
“With a report like this, it is possible to have real conversations on how to improve the lives of women working in the media,” it said, adding, “more gender-equal media is good for Ghana…”
Alliance for Women in Media Africa (AWMA) is a network of over 180 women across the media industry with a common goal to work towards increasing the visibility and impact of women in the media landscape.
It seeks to contribute to an inclusive global discourse where the voices, stories, experiences and images of African women and girls are correctly, sufficiently, and equally represented.
AWMA envisions a media industry where women are trained, visible, and in positions of influence and power.
Whereas the School of Information and Communication Studies (SICS) aims at improving and extending the frontiers of Information and Communication dissemination and management through effective teaching, learning and research.
Inaddition, focuses on developing world-class students who are skilled, versatile, creative, and ready to take up positions in the local and global information and communication industries.
Source: www.thenewindependentonline.com
