Bias against women in newsrooms still persists – Gifty Anti

According to her, there has been talk about promoting gender equity in various newsrooms but female journalists continue facing problems she encountered in the late 1990s when she joined the media.

She explained that people continue to label female journalists as promiscuous for reasons only known to them.

“I have been abused for 26 years and I’m still going through it but I won’t stop. The problems I faced in my early days are still going on because the bias against women in the newsrooms haven’t stopped.

“I left the newsroom about 19 years ago and unfortunately the bias against women hasn’t stopped. It is still going on. I remember a young journalist came to my office one day in tears and the problem was that, she had the opportunity to interview one of the world leaders but her media organization won’t let her go because she is a woman.”

She added “And the excuse they gave was they can’t guarantee her safety…Female journalists are still being told that they can’t cover certain assignments because they are for men,” she lamented during the launch of Equal Voices by CFI and Media Foundation for West Africa.

The Equal Voices project which was jointly implemented by Canal France Media and the Media Foundation for West Africa aims to combat inequalities and stereotypes against women in the media especially in the West African countries.