The State Of Women And Media In Ethiopia A Survey Of Journalists Working In Newspapers And News Agencies

To survey the state of women and media in Ethiopia in light of ‘critical mass’ andrn‘glass ceiling’ as underpinning theoretical frameworks was the aim of this study.rnData were collected through questionnaires that were answered by 30 femalernjournalists working in 13 government and private media organizations. In addition,rntwo focus group discussions and five individual interviews were conducted tornenrich the data obtained from the survey. Analysis of data showed that thernentrance of women to the media in Ethiopia is scanty, for various reasons,rncompared to the average of women journalists working in the media worldwide,rnand that of journalists in many African and Latin American countries. It was alsornknown that it is rare to see women journalists penetrating to high decision makingrnpositions as the path is greasy and steep. The findings also suggest that journalismrngenerally preferred by young, single, well-educated women who do not intend tornstay long in the career because of family pressure and inconvenient workingrnconditions. Women’s’ feelings about what assignments to undertake seems gloomyrnas no clear standpoint was taken between hard and soft news stories. The dividedrnattitude in assignments, as it was made clear from the focus group discussions,rnemanate from both women journalists themselves and editors. Women’s claim forrnthe deprivation of their rights to cover hard news stories contradict with the factrnfound from the survey that their first preferences were soft news. Almost all editors,rninterviewed for this research project, admitted assigning women to soft newsrnstories and their justification was related to women’s inability to work on hard news.rnWomen’s harassment in the media should not be overlooked as a sizable numberrnof respondents, were found to have faced sexual harassment, mostly from publicrnrelation officers. The data from this research also showed women journalists tendrnto solve their problems on individual bases rather than in an organized manner,rnand through professional associations

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