Women empowerment just a dream, The Spectator

Trainer’s Notes: The article does attempt to challenge stereotypes of women and does pose important questions about gender equality. It quotes from a variety of sources that present diverse views.  One weakness of the article is that it presents views that demean women without explicitly challenging them.                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Training Exercises: This is a useful training article as it raises a number of issues – it can be used to discuss whether gender equality is substantive or formal in nature, the role that the law can play in empowering women and how culture and tradition impact on gender equality. The article can also be used to illustrate the importance of obtaining comment from a variety of sources as it presents the views of a diverse range of people.  The article identifies some of the stereotypes of women – trainees should be asked to list those stereotypes and then discuss the impact of gender stereotypes on women. Trainees can be asked to specifically consider how journalists convey the views of their sources that may demean and degrade women.

Links to Training Resources: Gender and HIV/AIDS: A Training Manual for Southern African Media and Communicators, Gender Links and the AIDS Law Project, Chapter 4, www.genderlinks.org.za/docs/training/hiv-training-manual/hiv-ch4.pdf