LET WOMEN HAVE A SAY TOO!

This qualitative study aims to show the need to encourage more Mozambican women to enter and to stay in journalism, and the need to mainstream gender in media coverage.

The study, carried out by UNESCO, follows on the heals of a gender and media baseline study conducted by Gender Links (GL), an NGO based in Johannesburg, and MISA. The GL/MISA study found that women in Mozambique constitute only 3 per cent of those working in the media, which is far below the regional average of 22 per cent. Women only constituted 15 per cent of the sources used in the media.

This UNESCO qualitative study involved in-depth interviews with 34 media experts. It was carried out in Maputo, the capital, Beira, in the central province of Sofala, and Nampula, in the north, during the months of October, November and December 2003. In addition to the interviews, a two-hour workshop was held in December with senior women journalists and editors to discuss the study and their views on gender and the media.

The UNESCO study showed that women journalists are especially under-represented in Mozambique’s print media with some newspapers, such as the Sunday newspaper, Domingo, and the Independent, Zambeze, having no women journalists. Others had only one or two women. Most, although not all, editors felt that it was a problem having so few women journalists, but there was no agreement as to how to change this situation.

Publisher: UNESCO
Year of Publication: 2003