Communicating Women
From under-representation to misrepresentation and marginalization, there is much congruence between issues of imbalance in global information flows and women’s issues in media and communication policies.
It was only in 1995, for example, where the silence on women issues in communication was broken with the introduction of the concept of empowerment (i.e. having a potential to transform structure) at the Fourth Women Conference of the UN in Beijing (Pandian, 1999).
In recognizing how ICT can be a tool for bridging the gender gap, the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc. (2003) proposed a policy framework that will mobilize ICT to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the areas of freedom of expression, access to opportunities for income and employment, spaces and networks where women can organize themselves, and participation in nation-building.
On the intergovernmental front, however, the issue of gender and communications policies has yet to reach a critical level of political significance. Through several references and a whole section on gender equality and women’ empowerment, the Rio+20 outcome document (The Future We Want, 2012) emphasizes the vital role women play in sustainable development and commits to ensuring full participation in policy formulation. It does not, however, mention anywhere in this landmark document about gender equality in media representation and access, and effective participation in communication policy development.
To date, media continues to be criticized for not adequately educating women about their rights and for its failure to accurately portray women’s struggles with poverty, health concerns and self-development.
Anita Anand (1995) amplified this point when she said information is useless to women unless it helps “to raise their consciousness about the oppressive structures that keep them in positions of powerlessness.”
Fundamental issues of gender power relations, equal access to media decision-making, and fair representation in media content remain unaddressed in communication policy development. A key challenge is to rectify the continuing inability of policy makers to realize that policy-making is not a gender-neutral undertaking. Policy design and implementation have gender implications. Communication policies must respect the differences in the economic and social positions of women and men, and the relations and priorities that result from these (Gallagher, 2011).
Until such time that women no longer need to struggle for visibility, voice and influence, communication policy makers must continue to encourage a critical examination of the social, economic and cultural structures that constrain women’s freedom of expression.
Read more about this topic: Development Communication, Development Communication Policy, Development Communication Policy Issues
Famous quotes containing the word women:
“Since I am a man, my heart is three or four times less sensitive, because I have three or four times as much power of reason and experience of the world—a thing which you women call hard-heartedness. As a man, I can take refuge in having mistresses. The more of them I have, and the greater the scandal, the more I acquire reputation and brilliance in society.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)