Read the full report here.

‘I couldn’t meet my bosses sexual wish and lower my dignity or break-up my family. I was repeatedly bullied and feared that for my own security I would almost leave my job. Misogyny is discouraging and can lead one to leave journalism’.

In a male-dominated news industry, African women struggle against gender-bias and ingrained patriarchal prejudice to secure positions as journalists in the first place. When they do, they find a broken system that impedes their progress at every step of their careers. Some suffer in silence, and others are hounded out of the profession, but many more possess a passion for news as a force for good that keeps them going against all the odds. This study aims to give them a voice and act as a rallying call to those who can and should weigh in on their side.

Widespread problems

Many of the stories shared by women journalists in this report are shocking. Still, they describe the everyday life of women who try to forge their way through the journalist profession in sub-Saharan Africa. This is not news – we already knew that this kind of abuse exists – especially after the #MeToo movement, but this report shows that the patriarchal and sexist patterns in the news media industry are common across countries and regions. This is bad, of course, but the insights can be used to advocate and work for change. 

Sexual harassment from male colleagues and bosses, all-too-frequently results in threatened and actual sexual violence. Women journalists in many media organisations are pressured to trade sexual favours for promotions, or even to get their rightful share of assignments. The culture is toxic, and historically so.

Men are often given all the “hard news” jobs while women are fobbed off with coverage of topics that male bosses think more fitting or suitable for “the weaker sex”. As if women aren’t affected by or might have something useful to say about politics, crime, war, and corruption in business and government. Many women were also denied training opportunities offered to male colleagues, routinely passed over for promotion, and paid poorly.

Women journalists also reported inflexible work schedules that penalise childcare and other family needs, and even male bosses deciding that once a woman marries or starts a family she is no longer capable of concentrating on her career. Study participants spoke of being stripped of their agency by men who made assumptions about how women should live their lives.

How to effect change

On a more positive note, the study highlights that many women journalists possess a great passion for journalism as a force for good that keeps them going against all the odds.

There are several ways media organisations and management can improve the experiences of women in the workplace.

All staff components must be provided with education and training on rights and gender equality. This needs to start in journalism courses undertaken by students, but also to be mandated for staff in existing newsrooms. Media businesses need to adopt policies that recognise gender equality, make them part of employment contracts, and enforce them via robust human resource systems.

Management must allow more women into the leadership roles that they deserve, and support them in those. There is a need to go beyond tokenism and ensure that women in such roles have decision-making authority without risk of being continually countermanded by their male peers.

Women and allies who champion the rights of women can organise to achieve solidarity. Women in Africa lack secure forums and venues to share their views with fellow female journalists. Suffering in isolation leaves individuals fearful, intimidated, and even abused and coerced. There is strength in numbers, and a crowd is louder than a single voice.

This study aims to give them a voice and act as a rallying call to those who can and should weigh in on their side. 

The study is a joint publication by Fojo Media Institute (Fojo) and African Women in Media (AWiM), which was made as part of the project, Consortium for Human Rights and Media in Africa (CHARM). The study surveyed 125 women journalists from 17 different African countries.

The objective of the study was to assess the status of women in journalism in Sub-Saharan Africa. The research shows that barriers exist at various points in the professional and personal life cycles. The main barriers and challenges faced by the respondents in this study were:

• Job stagnation and salary discrepancies for women in the media,
• Disparities between men and women in the distribution of job roles,
• Sexual Harassment, Bullying and Sexism,
• Family Life, and
• Women in media and leadership.

Read the full report here.