This is a lightly edited extract from the book Women Journalists in South Africa: Democracy in the Age of Social Media, edited by Glenda Daniels and Kate Skinner (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2022).

Unchecked sexism

Patriarchy, as reflected in society at large, is mirrored in the media with the practices of gender stereotyping, which reproduce discrimination and gender bias, the assigning of women to soft beats, as well as the persistence of a gender pay gap between men and women. The women journalists’ responses to the survey questions revealed that policies, new practices and different organisational cultures were needed to deepen equality and bring about a more inclusive and radical democracy.

The old boys’ network was alive and well, but now it was black and not white. Men in senior positions make editorial decisions, within reference groups comprising their social circles and on the sports circuits, for example, soccer fields and golf courses, which exclude women, blocking the rise of capable women. For women, whether it was the black or white boys’ clubs, however, the effect was the same: the old boys’ clubs worked in “subtle ways”, embedded in patriarchal culture.

As Respondent 3 noted: “Women are excluded from the informal discussions which precipitate much of the decisions taken by senior editorial management (in bars, after-work drinking sessions, sports grounds).” Despite the fact that women do most of the work in the newsroom, in their experience, they felt overlooked for top positions because “the men, who do far less work, have time  for self-promotion and networking, which facilitates their entry into the top tier” (Respondent 4). This was a common theme.

Further, women journalist respondents felt that men were still taken more seriously for promotion than they were. They observed that they were paying “the family penalty” for taking maternity leave from time to time, while sexist stereotypes of them as “emotional” continued to prevail.  The comments on sexism experienced in the professional working lives of women journalists appear to be a pattern that has persisted year after year, and the job loss crisis as well as the lack of active trade unions in the media space allow this to go unchecked (Daniels, 2020).

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Cyberspace, as an unregulated domain in the public sphere, holds threats that women in the survey find threatening and violent. These findings and discussion attest to the need for women journalists to advocate and demand policies which will meet their need to be able to report incidents and request protection. Equally, these need monitoring, women need to ask about them, and they need to be aware of what they are.

Towards a deeper democracy

Deepening democracy involves increasing diversity and inclusivity, processes that do not cohere with the sexist South African media environment described by women journalists in the Glass Ceilings 2018 survey. The themes that emerged from women journalists do not point to freedom of expression, full participation or a media culture that welcomes the critique of sexist stereotypes and practices. There is resistance by women to inequality in employment practices and male-dominated leadership.  

The reports of cybermisogyny shared by women indicate that sexist stereotyping has a new, more dangerous and violent form: the silencing of women in the media by media itself. The more women continue to be bullied online and feel that it is not safe to exercise their rights to free speech and write and promote their stories via social media, the weaker our democracy will become – we will lose diversity of voice and, importantly, the voice of women.

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Women journalists have acknowledged that awareness of what sexism is has increased, even if this has not yet translated into its eradication in, for example, sexist jokes, sexist language, sexist practices and sexist attitudes, “mansplaining”, assigning soft beats to women, overlooking senior women journalists for promotion to editor, or the gender pay gap.

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The patchwork quilt of patriarchy could be unravelled with greater activism, and policies implemented through some decisive action. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BDPfA) then remains as pertinent as ever with recommendations that government, civil society and media companies show some confluence of action to stop the unchecked harassment of women journalists, especially online.

Recommendations

A memorandum of understanding on new rules of engagement regarding the treatment, safety and protection of journalists from online harassment was put on the table for agreement by political parties at an event hosted by the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) on  28 September 2019, World News Day. Agreement was not reached because of the low attendance by organisations and political parties.

Okyerebea Ampofo-Anti, a media lawyer, said political will and commitment was imperative to stop violence against journalists and challenge patriarchy and the backlash against women in the media.  

The recommendations of women civil society organisations in Africa and the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, Sanef, Media Monitoring Africa, Gender Links and Unesco all assert the need for coordinated and decisive action by governments, locally and internationally, to address the change in the media landscape as a result of new media technologies.  

The Glass Ceilings reports in 2006 and 2018 play an important part in tracking sexism in the newsroom and also in calling for the BDPfA commitments to be met and respected. Women’s media activism has provided the momentum for change and will continue to do so, rallying women to stay informed of their rights and question the media’s social silencing of women and the unchecked culture of sexism in newsrooms.  

Women journalists must be able to hold media companies, political parties and government to account for the rise in unregulated sexist culture and practices in the media locally, regionally and internationally. DM168

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R25.

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