Southern Africa: Agony of women in newsrooms

As we celebrate Press Freedom Day in May it is a painful reality that women in the media still have to work 10 times more than their male counterparts and fight to earn recognition both in Zimbabwe and neighbouring South African newsrooms.

Despite having many females attending journalism schools, women often disappear from the newsrooms and settle for jobs in the public relations sector and non-governmental organisations, indeed a worrying trend.

While South Africa has more newsrooms that are bigger and more staffed than Zimbabwe, female journalists in that country continue to struggle to break the glass ceiling, a matter of concern to many of them. This has been attributed to African males’ opinion on female journalists who they view as weaker and cannot be trusted to make clear and effective decisions or bring out the story behind the story, especially when it comes to political and business reporting.

Some men still believe that women are weak and cannot balance between breastfeeding and breaking news, often assigning them to softer beats. A group of 15 Zimbabwe young female journalists learnt during a tour of South African newsrooms that included The Star, Sunday Times, Mail & Guardian, SABC, CNN, AP, e-TV, Wits Journalism School, 702 Talk Radio, Channel Africa, Fraymedia, and Kaya FM last week, that women still have to fight for recognition in the newsrooms.

WE Public Affairs Section and the Humanitarian Information Facility Centre (HIFC) organised the educational tour. The visit and discussions held with senior journalists and editors of the newspapers, television and radio stations revealed that women share similar challenges when it comes to being recognised in leadership positions and in being assigned to “hard” beats.

Decision-making remains male-dominated despite having strong female presence in the newsrooms.

E-TV senior reporter and morning news anchor Iman Rappetti believes that it has been always challenging being a woman who is socially conscious and an activist.
Source: ZWRCN