In December 2020, Earth Journalism Network (EJN) began a research project to determine how journalists in Asia who have received grant support and mentorship from EJN include women in their reporting, or fail to do so.
A recent report on women’s under-representation in the media, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2020, concluded: “News is produced mainly by men, featuring more men and is consumed by more men.”
Researchers at EJN conducted that women are often seen as “less credible” sources than men. Women journalists face safety concerns that can make field reporting more challenging. Men still hold most leadership positions in newsrooms, leading to less awareness of the absence of women’s voices and/or a lack of support for reporters seeking to include women more.
A pay gap remains between men and women journalists. There are often fewer prominent women experts, particularly in environmental or in high-level government positions. One common thread through all four countries was the role social and cultural norms play in terms of where women can go and who they can speak to, both as journalists and as sources.
In India, EJN’s researchers learned from journalists how difficult it can be to find women experts in certain niche fields because women have historically been excluded from higher education. Other interviewees mentioned that women experts often must ask a supervisor for permission to speak and that traditional or generational wisdom, much of which is held by women, is not considered expertise.
Another Indian interviewee, freelance journalist Aparna Karthikeyan, summed it up well: “I can’t sit in a bar like a man, I can’t walk into a panchayat [local government] meeting like a man.”
The Gates’ Foundation’s “Missing Perspectives of Women in News” found only 14% of sources quoted in online news stories in India were women. (In the United Kingdom, which was the most gender inclusive of the six countries they considered, it was just 29%.)
In Pakistan, this challenge was found to come into play as well. Two journalists, both men, reported to EJN that they find it difficult to interview women in remote areas of the country because of societal norms that discourage women from speaking to strangers.
In both Hindu and Muslim communities in the country, women observe purdah – seclusion from strangers and/or men – in different ways. Some may cover up entirely around strangers of any gender, while others may show their faces to unknown women but not men.
Overall, the report reiterates that more work needs to be done to advance gender equality in the media and presents a dozen recommendations for how EJN and other organizations can support journalists in making their work more gender balanced.
