For every ten leadership positions existing in the media in Mozambique, one is occupied by a woman. The conclusion is from the Annual Media Gender Report – 2021, published this Friday by h2n as part of the Wings project.
The h2n collected data from 58 communication organs from the provinces of Maputo, Gaza, Sofala, Zambezia, Nampula and Cabo Delgado. Of these, 38 are community radios, four television stations, 16 printed and online newspapers.
The under-representation of women in the organs, in addition to threatening the achievement of gender equality in the newsrooms and in the subjects that are produced by the communication organs, reveals that the communication organs are a space dominated by men. The report supports this idea with data on the number of men compared to the number of women in the organs. In every ten people in the organs, seven are men and three are women.
“Women are invisible in newsrooms. They rarely appear as sources of information, they rarely occupy leadership positions, and when they do, even if they are in decision-making positions, they don’t have the voice they should have for the media to fulfill its role, which is to educate, inform, and contribute to development,” commented Julieta Langa, one of the editors of the report.
Among the challenges presented by the report, which influence the representation of women in the newsrooms, sexual harassment, the lack of confidence in the capabilities of women by decision makers, and the difficulties in reconciling work and domestic chores are some of the challenges highlighted in the document.
The report also presents as a challenge the lack of comfortable infrastructure for women, which makes it even more difficult for women with disabilities to access and remain in the newsroom. Commenting on the report, Sérgio Albuquerque, Deputy Executive Director of TV Surdo, highlighted the importance of including the voices of women with disabilities in the report and suggested that it is important for the media to start thinking about the issue.
Read the report
