The State of Women and Media in Ethiopia: A Survey of Journalists Working in Newspapers and News Agencies
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Date
2007-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
To survey the state of women and media in Ethiopia in light of ‘critical mass’ and
‘glass ceiling’ as underpinning theoretical frameworks was the aim of this study.
Data were collected through questionnaires that were answered by 30 female
journalists working in 13 government and private media organizations. In addition,
two focus group discussions and five individual interviews were conducted to
enrich the data obtained from the survey. Analysis of data showed that the
entrance of women to the media in Ethiopia is scanty, for various reasons,
compared to the average of women journalists working in the media worldwide,
and that of journalists in many African and Latin American countries. It was also
known that it is rare to see women journalists penetrating to high decision making
positions as the path is greasy and steep. The findings also suggest that journalism
generally preferred by young, single, well-educated women who do not intend to
stay long in the career because of family pressure and inconvenient working
conditions. Women’s’ feelings about what assignments to undertake seems gloomy
as no clear standpoint was taken between hard and soft news stories. The divided
attitude in assignments, as it was made clear from the focus group discussions,
emanate from both women journalists themselves and editors. Women’s claim for
the deprivation of their rights to cover hard news stories contradict with the fact
found from the survey that their first preferences were soft news. Almost all editors,
interviewed for this research project, admitted assigning women to soft news
stories and their justification was related to women’s inability to work on hard news.
Women’s harassment in the media should not be overlooked as a sizable number
of respondents, were found to have faced sexual harassment, mostly from public
relation officers. The data from this research also showed women journalists tend
to solve their problems on individual bases rather than in an organized manner,
and through professional associations
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State of Women and Media in Ethiopia