After 12 years of a new South Africa, in South African newsrooms it’s still a question of ”same old”. In a male-dominated industry, women are still on the receiving end of discrimination.
This is the conclusion of a report conducted by the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) and launched on Tuesday at the Mail & Guardian‘s offices in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
The Glass Ceiling and Beyond, compiled by the Sanef diversity sub-committee, aimed to establish what the realities were that women journalists experienced in South African newsrooms.
”I was astounded by the results,” said Ferial Haffajee, M&G editor and chairperson of Sanef. ”The media holds itself up as a barometer of society, but it is crucial that the media also look at itself.”
Sowetan editor Thabo Leshilo said at the launch that Sanef is not a statutory body, and cannot force its members to take action on issues like these.
However, ”we can sensitise people to the development of journalism, and improve standards”, he said, adding that Sanef can use the ”power of persuasion” to bring about change.
”Take these [gender issues] seriously, or else they will come back to bite you,” he advised the country’s media operations.
”The intrinsic ‘maleness’ of the newsroom and journalism practice, as result of a male hegemonic society, is a major cause for women not to be found in senior positions (which also affects the representation of women in the various contents of the various media),” the report states.
A questionnaire was sent to 150 Sanef members, 40 of which responded (another 10 commented in some way). From these 40 respondents, 25 were female and only 14 were male — and one response read ”Good question”. This is in contrast to the ratio of men to women in the media, which stands at 65% to 35%. The report says this may show the priority with which the issue and the questionnaire were treated by male Sanef members.
Mathatha Tsedu, editor of City Press, told the M&G Online that he remembers receiving the questionnaire, but he did not respond to it — and he could not remember the reason for doing so.
Of the respondents, 45% had more than 20 years’ experience, another 45% had between 10 and 20 years’ experience, and 10% had less than 10 years’ experience.
Among the reasons given in the report for the small number of women at senior levels across all media in South Africa are patriarchy, sexism, marginalisation, social injustices, family commitments and historical fact. Some respondents said ”emotional instability” and incompetence are obstacles in the way of women becoming senior editors.
When asked if he had ever seen women display emotional instability in the newsroom, Tsedu said he was insulted by the question and he had never seen it.
The report also finds that there seems to be an improvement regarding the acceptance of women managers, despite prejudices.
Out of the 15 editorial positions at the Sowetan newspaper, six positions are taken up by women. Earlier in the week, Leshilo said the Sowetan has the only black female motoring editor in the country.
Sanef also found that women journalists are gender sensitive when dealing with day-to-day news events, while male journalists still need to work on their gender awareness. Leshilo said he makes sure that the number of male and female sources in articles is equal.
”I preach that all the time. But there is a limit to what only one man can do … a woman does not have to take her clothes off to get into the Sowetan,” he said.
Some reasons why senior women editors leave their jobs are also provided in the report, including retrenchment, harassment, pressure, a ”sense of isolation”, undermining, no space for flexibility and not being taken seriously.
The report concludes that discriminatory practices, prejudices, patriarchy and sexism ”are still alive and well in South African newsrooms” and that these issues are clearly prohibiting South Africa’s women journalists from realising their potential.
Sanef has, however, been criticised for not securing adequate funding for the report, with one respondent saying ”Sanef really has to pull finger instead of providing lip service”. Joan Roberts, Sanef director, said at the launch on Tuesday that the research should ideally have been done by professionals, or even outsourced. There were some problems with the structure of questions posed to respondents, for example.
The launch of the report will be followed by an audit of the South African media sector — conducted in partnership with Gender Links, which promotes gender equality in the media — Haffajee announced, adding that this audit will ”most decidedly be better resourced”.