Wanted: More females in our Kenyan newsrooms

The Nation Media Group’s 50th birthday bash, which was celebrated during the Pan Africa Media Conference this month, was undoubtedly one of the most high profile media events I have attended in recent months.

Participants got to hear the thoughts and opinions of some of the most celebrated politicians, media personalities, businesspeople, scholars, journalists and activists on the continent, including Rwanda’ President Paul Kagame, Kenya’s Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, Sudanese tycoon Mo Ibrahim, not to mention the top brass at the Nation Media Group, which was represented by none other than His Highness the Aga Khan. Even rock star Bono made an appearance.

But as I listened to speaker after speaker talking about issues, such as the role of the media in promoting democracy in Africa and how Africa’s image has been shaped by the local and international media, I kept wondering why there were hardly any women on the various panels and high-profile events. Although a significant number of participants at the conference were female, the keynote speakers, moderators and panelists were predominantly male.

I am not one of those people who believe that women should be represented equally in such events just for the sake of it. Affirmative action in favour of women and in the interest of gender balance is sometimes necessary, but when it is done for cosmetic or politically-correct reasons, it can backfire on all women.

For instance, if an unqualified or incompetent woman is placed in a responsible or senior position just because of her sex, she jeopardises the chances of qualified and competent women to aspire for such positions. But I do find it hard to believe that the organisers could not find more African women to talk eloquently and intelligently about the media in Africa.

The glaring absence of women at the high profile events and panels disturbed many female journalists who I spoke with during the event, many of whom wondered whether things had really changed for female African journalists in the 21st century. Kenya isn’t exactly one of the most progressive or gender-friendly places in Africa.

Unlike neighbouring Rwanda, which has aggressively implemented a policy to seek equality for women in all sectors, and where women comprise half the government and parliament, women here have to fight at all levels just to be seen or heard. This reality is quite often reflected in the country’s newsrooms.

One of the common complaints I have heard from female journalists is that there is an assumption by male editors that all they are capable of covering are “soft” stories on health, relationships or fashion. These are just the kinds of stories that don’t win awards and don’t get women journalists noticed. By ghettoising women, editors inadvertently sabotage the prospect of women journalists rising to senior positions, or to have opportunities to cover “hard” stories, such as wars, corruption and political crises.

Not surprisingly, many female journalists leave the newsroom to enter more gender-sensitive environments where they have a chance to rise up the ladder and be treated seriously. Some of Kenya’s brightest female journalists have left the profession prematurely to join NGOs or public relations companies.

Newsrooms in this country need more women, not just for the sake of gender balance but also because women bring a certain sensibility and knowledge to stories. For instance, in the 1970s, when rural development was the focus of most governments in Africa, most stories focused on the male African farmer who would speak very little about issues that severely impacted women’s lives, such as lack of access to water or their inferior status in society.

It was only when feminists pointed out that the vast majority of farmers in Africa were women that the voices of women got to be heard in development circles and in the media. Because women journalists in this country do not have many opportunities to manage and edit the mainstream media, they do not get to set the news agenda.

This could explain why political conflicts and squabbles are given so much prominence in our media, but stories about the rising price of unga (flour), water and electricity are not considered national crises. When women’s concerns are featured in the media, they are considered trivial, or worse, the subject of jokes.

At a time when the country is debating a much-needed constitution, for instance, a photojournalist saw it fit to photograph women parliamentarians’ legs, which became the subject of a discussion in the middle of a parliamentary debate on the constitution. I wouldn’t have been so offended by this turn of events if the photographer had also captured the various shapes and sizes of our male parliamentarians’ growing pot bellies!

(rasna.warah@gmail.com)