Femme globale: gender perspectives in the 21st century women contesting the information society: from Beijing to Geneva, Tunis and beyond

How successful were the strategies for improving the gender-responsiveness of the media with respect to the content of the media and representation within the media, outlined in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action? This paper examines why, ten years on, the coverage and representation of African women remains a concern.

The author finds that the need for free, independent and pluralistic media at the service of development and social change and the need for self-regulation by the media, with women’s full participation in the development of codes of conduct and self-regulatory mechanisms remain relevant objectives today.

Additionally the author finds that there is need for further elaboration. Recommendations include:

developing the infrastructure and regulation (in respect of broadcasting, information and communications technologies (ICTs) and telecommunications) to reform public broadcasters and to actively support community broadcasters, paying due attention to gender, is a priority
ensuring the independence of public broadcasters is critical; awareness about what community broadcasters are needs to be raised
supportive training and sustainability mechanisms need to be evolved to assist the community broadcasters which already exist and to ensure more are established in underserved areas; regulatory frameworks which cover the public broadcasters and also define and address the concerns of community broadcasters need to be established
in order to gain control over ICTs the need for investment into education, research and training for women in the fields of math, science and technology is even more important now
telecommunications regulation should ensure that infrastructure rollout includes practical strategies for gendered universal access (e.g. through universal access levies on private telecommunications providers, through credit schemes supporting infrastructure rollout through African women entrepreneurs).

Publisher: African Women's Development & Communication Network
Year of Publication: 2007