Somali Women Journalists Organization (SWJO) has conducted five round table discussions aimed to follow up the implementation of gender declaration respect signed by Somali media houses in 2018.
The round table discussions conducted on August and September 2020 were held at the capital city, Mogadishu and the administrative capitals of federal member states of Southwest, Galmudug, Puntland and Jubbaland.
The follow up project was aimed to evaluate the progress registered so far by the participating media houses. The evaluation was based on a review of the individual media houses and experience sharing among participating media managers and journalists.
The review meetings also looked at the challenges in implementing the Declaration and explored ways in which media houses can overcome them.
The Impact of the project
The project expected the media organisations to develop gender sensitive approaches in their overall operations including and not limited to recruitment, promotion, remuneration, leave, elimination of all forms of violence and sexual harassment but their efforts have none the less reached the anticipated impact which the project was set to achieve.
Since signing the declaration, many media houses have taken actions that created a positive change, somewhat restored the hope of the female journalists and encouraged them to stand for their rights.
Some of the notable actions taken by the leaders of media organizations that created positive image include promotions of female journalists, provision of educational advancement and professional development to all employees especially female journalists, gender equitable recruitment, formation of policies that address sexual harassment and violence and establishment of gender departments led by a woman which deal with gender issues in male dominated media houses.
According to the views of the female journalists who attended the round table discussions, the steps taken by the leaders were significant since they never existed before or had little impact in the daily operations of the media houses.
Leave, annual and maternity, establishment of gender departments led by female journalists, training and development, promotion, by-laws to combat sexual harassment and violence in workplace are some of the areas where the directors of the media houses have done little progress although they fell short of the anticipated impact.
For instance, promotions of female journalists, although there is no salary increase that is attached to it- the female journalists see it as a milestone that gives them a role in decision-making positions of their respective stations, but women continue to be under-represented in all decision-making structures of the organizations.
There are no more women moving into higher-up executive-type roles as expected- this is attributed to the lack of female role models in the workplace. Not having a visible role model in workplace can make women feel as if moving into a leadership role as simply unattainable.
In the various round table discussions, it is evident that the awareness of media managers and owners is now fully intact and they are ready to protect and promote the welfare and the rights of female journalists but
The sentiments of media managers show their intention and readiness to turn their promises into action and address the challenges facing the female journalists in Somali media industry but that does not guarantee that everything will be fixed in short time.
Generally, the advances made in resolving some of the challenges in media houses following the signing of the Gender Declaration is just a start and not enough, this needs to be strengthened so as to create a safe and conducive working environment.
Gaps that are yet to be fixed
There are a number of issues which the media houses have not done well to improve the conditions of the female journalists- for instance equal pay for men and women remains a thorny issue at the workplace, no media house has taken a single step to implement it and this is directly impacting the professional and personal lives of the female employees.
Separate toilets, prayer and dressing rooms, equal pay at work, gender sensitivity training and adequate leave are the areas where Somali media organizations have done little and still need to be improved.
The directors of media organizations have not taken actions aimed to recruit more women in media
The media organizations have no standard salary scale that will guide the renumeration and the benefits of the employees. This could also be attributed to lack of enough awareness to media directors and owners on gender mainstreaming.
Although the media organizations report that they have trained journalists especially women through provision of training and development programs, they [female journalists] still feel that they lack special skills in their profession that hinder them cover crucial areas like elections, politics, economics and security, to mention but a few.
Way Forward
To address the challenges of gender disparity in workplace, it calls for the commitment of the directors and media owners and strong advocacy campaigns aimed to build the skills of all stakeholders in a bid to build an equitable work environment.
There is also need to build on the successes gained so far and continue with the awareness and advocacy campaigns aimed to educate the directors on the importance of equality in workplace.
To address the barriers that act as hindrances to the full participation of women in the media industry, the media directors should eliminate the stereotypes and profiling women journalists.
The directors should make long-term investment in women through building their skills, awareness and appointing to managerial roles that will help take part in decision-making of the stations.
Leave a Reply