Report of Gender Equality Training

Name of the Training: Gender Equality Training

Organizer: Somali Women Journalists Organization

Locations: Mogadishu, Kismayo, Garowe, Dhusa-mareeb, Jowhar and Baidoa

Training Venues: Afrik Hotel, Agan Hotel, Hotel Beder and Restaurant, Beder Hotel and Horyal Hotel

Dates: 10^th November- 23^rd December 2020

Trainer: Abdi Moalim

Participants attending gender equality training at Afrik Hotel in Mogadishu

Background

Over the years, not just in Somalia but also in other parts of the world, female journalists have occupied the fringes within the media industry owing to policies within media organizations, unconscious bias and deliberate decisions some of which are informed by cultural biases and societal perspectives.

The under-representation of female journalists within media organizations particularly in decision making not only amounts to discrimination and violation of labour and human rights but also entrenches stereotyping of women through content output. Fewer women in editorial and managerial positions translates to fewer women voices in stories, articles and news content from media houses.

Gender equality training for men and women in media employees can contribute to institutional strengthening and lead to a greater engagement with gender equality in development work. The training provided the basic concepts of gender equality and gender mainstreaming.

Training programs specifically addressed the issue of gender equality, gender mainstreaming and offering them opportunities to perform their duties effectively while promoting the principle of equality and women’s rights in interventions.

Training Objectives

At the end of the training, the participants were expected to foster gender equality in media organizations and entrench a gender sensitive approach in management of media organizations in Somalia. The main objectives of the training were to:

• Foster gender equality in media organizations and entrench a gender sensitive approach in management of media organizations in Somalia;

• Enable media organizations fully implement the Gender Declaration and adopt them as part of their policy frameworks;

• Allow female journalists acquire knowledge and understanding on gender equality and need to champion for their rights and protection through gender sensitive policy frameworks.

Training Methodology

Due to the size of the participants of the training workshop, open group discussions, experience sharing exchange, lecture presentations and interventions by the training facilitator were carried out as methodology.

The participants were also given opportunity to share their personal views and experiences especially on the issues of gender equality. They were also asked to provide practical recommendations that match their diversity and needs.

There were power point presentations followed by a detailed deliberation and debate on questions and group discussions.

Group work

The training facilitator provided an opportunity to the participants to have debate on given topics that require deep understanding and share their experiences while applying the theory into practice. The formation of the groups ranged from female only groups to mixed groups based on the training topic.

Each session lasted from 30 minutes to one hour depending on the content of the topic. At the end of the group work, the participants were asked to present what they discussed, which was followed by question and answer.

Presentation

After holding group discussion on the assigned topics, the participants bring forward their group work to share with other participants for reflection and further discussion.

Target Group

The training was conducted between November 10 to 23 December 2020 for 85 journalists (70 female and 15 male) selected from different media houses in Mogadishu, Kismayo, Garowe, Dhusa-mareeb, Jowhar and Baidoa.

Training Proceedings

Day one: 10 November 2020

Opening Session

The first day of the training workshop started with participation of senior officials of Somali Women Journalists Organization.

After the recitation of Holy Quran, the deputy chairperson of Somali Women Journalists Organization (SWJO), Nasrin Mohamed Ibrahim welcomed the participants to the training workshop and shared the commitment of the organization in supporting women’s

participation in gender equality.

She also spoke about the importance of implementation of the gender strategy as well as other related policies at the media stations by key actors who were invited to attend the training workshops.

Miss Nasrin concluded her remarks highlighting that SWJO with the support of its partners IMS-FOJO hopes that the issue of gender inequality and discrimination at the workplace could be addressed through various activities at various levels of the media.

She urged all concerned parties to come forward to promote gender equality at the workplace. she hoped that the participants would learn new issues and concepts from the debates of the training and they could contribute to the promotion of gender equality at their workplaces in their own ways.

In all the trainings, as a matter familiarization, the participants introduced themselves and they were given an opportunity to share their expectations from the training. Later on, the trainees, along with the facilitator, established training norms and penalties for violations of training norms.

Session 1: Definitions of Key Gender Terms

The first topic of the training workshop was regarding gender and roles. In this item, the participants were encouraged to share their thoughts on gender roles, norms, cultural and traditional practices and also presentation was made to share the differences between sex and gender as well as how the gender norms are affecting men and women differently.

In this session, the trainer defined and explained different gender related concepts. The main concepts elucidated included gender roles, sex, gender equality and equity, gender mainstreaming, women empowerment, gender stereotyping, gender relations among others and their relationship. The facilitator used concrete examples to illustrate and substantiate these terms.

He shared presentations in form of slides on these sub-topics. The facilitator also made detailed explanations on the meaning of gender equality within the context of workplace in relation to employment, renumerations, promotions, recruitment and access to training and capacity-building.

In defining gender equality, he stated that it means the equality between women and men which refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys. The facilitator highlighted that equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but their responsibilities and opportunities will not depend in whether they are born male or female. He further highlighted that gender equality is not a women’s issue but should concern and fully engage men as well as women and other diverse group.

Participants learned how gender identities are constructed and maintained, how institutions create and spread gender stereotypes as well as strategies for challenging and eliminating gender stereotypes.

After the presentations, the floor was made open for comments and queries. Many participants actively took part during this open-floor discussion by commenting and asking questions. Taking the opportunity, one of the participants of Mogadishu training commented that it is a fact that women are discriminated in workplace.

The participant underlined that that this discrimination could be addressed by developing personality, he highlighted that if the women get strong personality, people would give it a second thought before teasing and discriminating them.

Another participant who echoed his sentiments said strong personality and education can play a big role in boosting the level of gender equality in workplace.

The participants were divided into three groups to discuss gender related issues in workplace and the challenges of inequality faced by female journalists in workplace, the reasons behind it and the possible solutions to overcome these challenges.

Each group has presented a number of challenges and the reasons that led to the inequalities. There presentations were as follows:

Challenges

• Negative attitude towards women;

• Lack of awareness among women about their rights;

• Leaders not giving adequate importance to gender issue;

• There is a mindset that women are less capable;
• Discrimination for promotion;

• Misinterpretation of religion for justifying discrimination;

• Women are scared of working outside their home at night citing insecurity as a challenge. Without giving an alternative option, the media leaders discriminate against the already vulnerable female journalists;

• Low recruitment of female journalists by media houses. Some journalists indicated that even the positions vacated by female journalists is replaced by male journalists, thus their number that was initially low than male is diminished.

The participants also pointed out the reasons they think abetted these persistent challenges in media.

1. The restrictive Somali culture does not encourage gender equality, the media leaders represent the culture and don’t have good knowledge on the subject as they don’t normally attend trainings on gender equality- they believe that women are not equal to men;

• Somali culture does not encourage women to have voice, protect and defend their rights, therefore this has barred women to raise their voices and express their views;

• Some female journalists, especially those in Kismayo believe that they are not equal in rights to men and therefore do not have the right to be equal to them. Their low understanding of this concept is attributed to lack of gender equality training;

• In some instances, the participants highlighted that men (clients) do not like female journalists to cover their events hence making it easy for the management to send a male journalist to take lead;

• Some participants underlined that the female journalists cannot cover some of the events especially those that are held at night due to insecurity hence this persuades the directors to opt for male journalists- a move that supports the inequality in workplace.

After the presentations by the participant, the trainer shared with the participants recommendations and provisions of international labour standards and domestic laws that promote gender equality. The session has ended while the participants have good understanding of the content.

Session II: How can Female Journalists Champion their Rights in the Instances of Discrimination

All the sessions started with the explanations on the struggle of women around the globe and the region on gender equality and the stages it passed.

The trainer noted that there are challenges of gender inequality in the world but there are advocacy campaigns aimed to promote the rights of women. He used examples of some countries where the campaigns have had good impacts.

It was followed by a heated debate on the various stages of women’s struggle to end challenges of inequality and how Somali women, especially the journalists, can set an example in advocating for their rights.

As a means of ending the discrimination in workplace, the trainer urged the female journalists to learn their rights by reading the international, domestic legal frameworks and media laws that elaborate the rights of women journalists and media freedom.

The facilitator also advised the female journalists to break the long silence, talk to and have debates with the media leaders on their rights. He asked them to come up with slogans that defend and promote their rights and display at workplaces.

He latter shared a power point presentation that elaborate the ways in which the journalists especially women in media can champion and protect their rights in the occurrence of discrimination.

The session concluded with questions and answers where the facilitator exhaustively explained the queries of the participants.

Day Two of all the trainings

On the second day of the trainings, the first tasks were recapping the previous sessions. The trainer asked volunteers among the participants to summarize the training contents of the previous day and the other participants added on other relevant summary points.

Session III: Maternity Leave

In this session the discussions focused on how women journalists can receive paid maternity leave without challenges.

The trainer started with an assessment to know whether the female journalists have knowledge on maternity leave, whether they are granted maternity leave, its duration and whether it is paid leave or not.

Participants refreshed their knowledge on various international legal frameworks that support and promote maternity leave and discussed how they can use the legal frameworks to strengthen their advocacy roles.

 The participants learned how to apply for maternity leave. After presentations, the participants were divided into two groups to discuss and ponder well the application of maternity leave.

Session IV: Sexual Harassment at Workplace and Discrimination

The trainer asked the participants whether there is sexual harassment at workplace or not and their understanding about the meaning of sexual harassment. Here it became apparent that most of the participants had good understanding of sexual harassment since most of them quoted the baseline study on the working conditions of women journalists conducted by Somali Women Journalists Organization (SWJO).

The trainer asked the participants to list the sexual harassment actions in workplace that go unnoticed.

Here from the list of the participants, it became clear that the female journalists know rape as sexual harassment, hence could not differentiate between sexual assault and sexual harassment. From their discussions, there are many comments and actions which were normalized where the female journalists don’t regard it as sexual harassment since they are commonly used.

The facilitator shared lessons on sexual harassment at workplace with the participants and how the journalists especially the female journalists can fight sexual harassment.

He also shared with the participants a power point presentation of the main international and regional legal instruments for gender equality. The main instruments presented were the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

He also presented policies of sexual harassment at workplace to the participants.

The journalists learnt the definitions of sexual harassment in Somali context and the sexual harassment actions that go unnoticed in workplace.

The trainer noted that harassment is one of the most common violence against women at the workplace. In defining, ‘sexual harassment’ he stated that it refers to unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, sex-based messages from the employer or the colleagues, offence, humiliation, inappropriate comments constitutes sexual harassment.

Regarding the implications of such violence, the facilitator commented that submission to or rejection of this behavior clearly or obliquely affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.

After the presentations, the participants were given an assignment to find out women who suffered sexual harassment in workplace.  

Session V: Stereotypes

At the start of this sessions, for better understanding of stereotypes, the trainer asked the participants to list and raise the common words and actions in workplace that are used to discriminate against women.

Some of the participants said that the media leaders don’t allow the female journalists to cover the important events like elections, campaigns and press conferences held by the presidents, prime minister and senior government officials believing that they 9 Women journalists) are less capable to cover a credible story.

Some highlighted that the successful and competent women in the community and at workplace are nicknamed ‘Wiilo’ (a boy or a man) literally meaning that a woman cannot be successful unless she has qualities of a man or she might be a man.

Participants stated that most of the female journalists themselves believe that they are not equal to male journalists because they were brought up in a background where men are perceived to be more powerful than women- the same tradition has shifted to the workplace hence female journalists have assumed that this practice is correct and cannot be discussed openly.

As one of the stereotypes, another participant said that the Society believes that journalism is not a woman’s job which means that women have no role to play in reporting important news that affects the society.

The facilitator shared presentations with the participants that discuss the causes and consequences of stereotypes in the community and the workplace in particular.

It was followed by open discussions where the participants asked questions and raised suggestions. As a means of fighting stereotypes, a participant, among the trainees from Garowe suggested that the moderate scholars should be approached on how to prepare awareness programs on gender equality that will be disseminated to the community so as to eliminate and transform the bad perceptions and stereotypes with the society

The participants learned how institutions create and perpetuate gender stereotypes as well as strategies for challenging and eliminating gender stereotypes. After the presentations, the participants were divided into groups to discuss further the negative stereotypes in community.

Session VI: What are the rights and responsibilities of Employees

The trainer provided the participants with insights about the rights and responsibilities of the employees through presentations in form of slides.

The participants learnt their rights and responsibilities and strategies they can use to protect and defend their rights incase its violated. More question and answer session followed.

The session concluded with comments and thoughts by the training participants which the trainer elaborated exhaustively.

Session VII: How to Negotiate for Promotion and Salary Increase as a female Journalist

The training facilitator urged the participants to first develop their capacity, know their rights and then negotiate for equal salary and promotions.

The trainer has shared with the participants a power presentation on how to negotiate for promotion and salary increment with the media leaders.

After the presentation by the facilitator, a hot debate where the participants exchanged their views followed. Three female participants from Jowhar, Garowe and Dhusa-mareeb stated that the female journalists don’t negotiate for salary increase or promotion even if they deserve attributing their low pay to their silence and accepting whatever the management allocates for them leading to the major reason for the stubborn gender pay gap. Surprisingly they stressed that men that occupy the same positions earn more salary than them.

 Elaborating the points suggested by the participants, the trainer advised the female journalists to demand what they deserve as salary increase and promotion so as close the gender gap in media.

Session VIII: Decent Work, Gender Equality and Gender Mainstreaming in Media

The facilitator set the context for the workshop with presentations on the Decent Work and Gender Equality. After explaining the elements of Decent Work, his presentation focused on the key ILO gender equality Conventions and the framework of standards which provide a platform for advancing and gradually building gender equality.

The trainer summarized strategies such as promotion, implementation of regional and international Conventions through the creation of policies, programs and measures at the national and domestic level that were gender-sensitive and addressed the inequalities that are inherent in current systems.

The facilitator underlined that decent work in workplaces promotes gender equality adding that decent work is a good step that can be used to address multiple forms of discrimination against women.

The session concluded with comments and thoughts by the training participants which the trainer elaborated exhaustively.

Closing Remarks

The closing session was chaired by Farhia Mohamed Kheyre, the chairperson of Somali Women Journalists Organization who expressed gratitude to IMS-FOJO for their support and contributions to the success of the workshop training.

Ms. Kheyre also congratulated the workshop participants on the dedication and hard work displayed during the workshop proceedings and challenged them to apply what they had learned back home in their respective media stations so as to bring attitude change.

Ms. Kaltun Mustaf who spoke on behalf of the participants said they learned insightful lessons and skills during the workshop and expressed gratitude to all the organizers and facilitators.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The training was satisfactory for all the participants. Most of the attendees were expecting for continuation of such programs, as they mentioned it was really helpful for them to be familiarized with insights on gender equality. Moreover, the media leadership and the other leaders that attended the workshops promised to involve the female journalists in the decision-making platforms of the media.

 The session was concluded with recommendations and the way forward.

1. More female journalists that will spearhead awareness campaigns aimed to transform the restrictive culture of the society should be recruited by the media houses;

• The awareness of media leaders, the directors and media owners on gender equality should be improved through focused and targeted training on gender equality to ensure gender mainstreaming is on track;

• There should be continuous follow up of all the trainings to the media leaders and journalists to ascertain the achievements towards attitude change;

• More gender equality trainings should be conducted for the female journalists in order to advance their skills on gender equality;

• Moderate scholars should be approached on how to prepare awareness programs on gender equality and disseminate to the community so as to eliminate and transform the bad perceptions and stereotypes with the society;

• Female media association that works directly with SWJO on the advocacy of female journalists’ rights should be established in every region;

• Anti-harassment training should be conducted for all staff, female and male journalists to assist prevent harassment and create safe workplace;

• The laws on employment and gender equality at the federal and regional level should be Harmonized so as to end the confusion and lack of awareness among the journalists in the capital and the federal member states;

• Transport facilities should be provided and safety in the workplace should be ensured for those female journalists who work at night shifts;

1. A quota targeting the recruitment and the skills development of female journalists should be established and maintained;

1. Labour laws should be implemented properly through participation of higher management on gender equality programs to ensure women journalists are given a special consideration;

1. To address the issue of sexual harassment at workplace, awareness building, establishment of co-operational relationship and advocacy programmes should be implemented;

1. The parliamentary committees of labor, women affairs and human rights should be trained so as to integrate gender aspects into the new laws that are made and enacted.