Are female pens too soft to scratch the top

If there is one field that women are still highly underrepresented, that would be the media. This puzzle is proving too difficult to solve, writes Njoki Chege

Statistics indicate that in every graduation from a media or journalism faculty one in every five graduates is a man, with the rest being women.

However, women remain heavily under-represented at top-level media management.

While there are few women who manage to shatter the glass ceiling, most simply remain in middle-level positions, or quit altogether after a few years.

In Kenya, the number of women in top-level management is too small, almost negligible.

Thus begs the question, why is this the case in this day and age?
Dr Haron Mwangi, executive director of The Media Council of Kenya, attributes this situation to the unfriendly nature of the job.

“There are many rigours on the job and heavy conditions to keep these jobs. On top of that, women have family responsibilities and sometimes it becomes demanding, causing some to stop working and venture into new careers such as public relations,” he says.

Numerous setbacks

Dr Mwangi also points out the ‘scratch my back, I scratch yours’ factor that forces women who want to get to the top to compromise their values for the sake of those top level management positions.

“Many media owners also don’t believe that women can do a good job. They are under the wrong perception that a man can do a better job, which becomes a disadvantage to women who want to get to the top,” he notes.

This trend is not only happening locally, but internationally as well. In Germany for instance, women in media have put up an agressive fight to ensure their representation in top-level media management.

One such initiative is through Pro Quote —the women’s flagship organisation to end misrepresentation of women in the German media industry. According to Pro Quote, only two per cent of all chief editors of some 360 German daily and weekly newspapers and only three of 12 directors of public broadcasters are female.

Men almost exclusively fill the top positions in editorial offices of news organisations in Germany.

Annette Bruhns, a female German editor with Der Spigel and chairman of Pro Quote, knows this too well.  About six years ago, her former boss at the Politics Department of Der Spigel refused to publish her portrait article of Ursula von der Leyen, who at that time was Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

 Her boss claimed that her article about the mother of seven was ‘too positive’.

Bruhns felt that her boss was biased either against the woman she covered or against her own point of view as a female journalist. Either way, she quit the Politics department and moved to the Special Issues department, where she could publish her article.

“I was always the best at school. When I started at Der Spigel, I tried to be the best,”,Bruhns says. “But I realised things became different the moment I had a child because then I could only work part-time and become invisible in my office.”

Jane Thuo, Executive Director of the Association of Media Women in Kenya (Amwik) says media in Kenya is patriarchal, explaining why women find it difficult to penetrate to the top.

“It is patriarchal, with men occupying the highest positions, protecting themselves and their interests. Women who try to penetrate have to behave like the men in order to be accommodated,” she says.

Eventually, those women who reach the top don’t last because of such frustrations. To say that high-ranking jobs in media are strenuous and demanding is an understatement; as such jobs demand more than a 100 per cent.

In most cases, these jobs take a toll on the lives of women, which leads to fellow women settling for a softer landing.  They relax, let go of the fight and leave the plum positions for the men, thus making the situation even worse.

Family is also another reason why women step back when it comes to fighting for these positions.

Rose Lukalo, a former journalist and now a Trustee of the Media Policy Research Centre, echoes this, noting that women would rather sacrifice a plum job in media for the sake of their families.

“Women have to make the choice between family and their careers. Of course you cannot choose against your family, unless you are the sole breadwinner,” she says.

Once they have a family, women find it difficult to socialise after work — something that their male colleagues often do.

“Sometimes the one who gets the promotion is not the best but the one who makes the boss feel comfortable to work with,” Bruhns explains. “So it is easier for male colleagues to build up a relationship with their boss outside office hours. But even young female journalists can feel awkward having drinks with a 50-year-old male boss,” says Bruhns.

Many female journalists will bear witness to the fact that chances of losing their jobs or positions after they start families are high.

Many return from maternity leave to find either their jobs taken or responsibilities reduced, as many bosses are under the assumption that family women can’t deliver to the optimal levels.

Purpose to grow

While upward mobility in media still remains a challenge, women need to purpose to grow and succeed in media, and not cap their pens too soon.

“There is also a serious need to educate media owners to engage women in top level management,” notes Mwangi.

Living in a patriarchal society where men are socialised to look down on women and women socialised to look down on themselves is hard enough, hence the need to re-structure such thinking, to accommodate women in media.

“Our new Constitution will shock us to the realities of the 21st Century and reshape our value system and support women in that regard,” says Lukalo.

Gender policies

As Thuo points out, there has been a shift in the corporate world where women are being appointed to managerial positions.

However, there is a need to apply such gender policies even in media employment.

Says she: “Media needs to make sure that it is a protector of human rights, by implementing gender sensitive policies. They need to ensure gender balance even in employing their own.”

Thuo advises women to claim plum positions and not shy away from applying for them because most are qualified for such positions.

Quota

Bruhns says women journalists contribute a different point of view and cater for female readers, listeners and viewers.

“This is why we female journalists are now calling for a quota,” she explains.

Pro Quote demands that at least 30 per cent of management positions in the media industry over the next five years will be filled by women - at all levels.