By Ernestina Maame Esi Qainoo
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Aya Institute for Women, Politics and Media is calling on conference organizers, public sector, corporate institutions and the media to audit their programmes, recruitment and leadership development to include women to ensure a gender-equal society for us all. According to the Aya Institute for Women, Politics and Media, not only is female participation in all spheres a democratic right, but it is also ensuring that women’s talents are fully utilized to the benefit of the developing nation.
In a statement to mark International Women’s Day, Project Coordinator of the Aya Institute for Women, Politics and Media, Bridget Biney said,” While acknowledging the challenges with women panelists, in the media, the true test of our commitment in ensuring a gender-balanced society will be the extra work we put in to challenge ourselves that it is possible at all times to include women”.
Aya Institute said Data from its Gender Baseline Study (as of 2019) indicate also that for example, the gender composition of political show hosts is unfavorable; out of five prominent media sampled, only one had a female host”.
Hence, ”creating a database of female experts and people with experience is one sure way to project women”.
The Aya Institute said it recognizes the reason some women have refrained from engaging in national discourse because such platforms and terms of engagements are mainly masculinized.
”This has been compounded by cultural and social barriers to women’s expression as well as examples of terrible experiences of intimidation, bullying and misrepresentation”.
While encouraging the media and other organizations to push for more women speakers on talk shows, the Institute is equally asking that a conducive environment is fostered where sensationalism is minimized for facts to encourage more female professional participation.
In over one hundred and fifty (150) programme fliers on subjects of national interests in the media and at conferences monitored by the Aya Institute between September to December 2021, it shows that only three programmes had female representation.
”This is not encouraging enough and we urge the media, conference organizers and corporate institutions to commit this year to breaking the bias on ‘panels’ where there is an excess male representation at the expense of female voices”, the statement noted.
In 2019 and 2020, ExxonMobil and the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) supported the Aya Institute’s work on creating a database of African women experts to curb the under-representation of female voices, experiences and expertise on panels and across all platforms.
Aya Institute said it appreciates and recognizes women’s relentless and immense contribution to ”our national development despite the challenges we continue to face in achieving a gender-balanced society”.
