In the early twentieth century, the American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead wrote, “One could be a woman and therefore less an achieving individual — or an achieving individual and therefore less a woman”. Now, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, we are faced with a situation that has significantly changed — but not enough.

In its third year, UNESCO’s bold initiative “Women Make the News” pursues gender equality in the media. It is an initiative of profound symbolic and practical significance, striving to shatter the “glass ceiling” that pervades most media throughout the world.

By encouraging a globally diverse range of print, radio, television and electronic media to entrust their women journalists with editorial responsibility on International Women’s day, Monday, 8 March, 2004, “Women Make the News” draws attention to UNESCO’s specific objectives concerning women’s participation in media. These objectives have been shaped by the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and the Toronto Platform for Action, both in 1995.

Gender equality in the media implies that women’s as well as men’s interests, concerns, experiences and priorities are included in media coverage and that the producers of that coverage are both women professionals and men professionals. UNESCO holds that the under-representation of women in the upper echelons of media management and responsibility is both a symptom and cause of the inequality between the sexes and discrimination against women.

The obvious scarcity of women in the decision-making levels of media is an inequality that “Women Make the News” specifically addresses.

The exclusion of women from the news — as shapers and subjects of that news — is not only a gender issue. Freedom of expression, a highly important UNESCO objective, is best served by equal representation of working professionals in media. Media that discriminates against its professionals on the basis of gender, ethnic origin, disability or otherwise, severely compromises the independence and pluralism of information conveyed to local, national and international communities.

While women are playing an increasingly visible and valuable role in media institutions, the “democratic deficit” still remains — particularly in the highly influential realms of editorial authority. “Women Make the News” not only encourages a renewed emphasis on this deficit, but also provides the opportunity for media and its diverse audiences to appreciate the high quality journalism that women have to offer.

UNESCO’s “Women Make the News” is a crack in the glass ceiling of media institutions. It is a crack that anticipates a brighter future where a media professional can be both a woman and an achieving individual.

Women make the news 2004 UNESCO initiative

Why UNESCO has taken this initiative?

Why UNESCO coordinates Women Make the News?

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