adminA friend of mine, Linda asked me this question to which I could not give a reasonable answer. I had no option but to find shameful solace in that I am not a full-time practising journalist yet, but just a student! Even though I pretended to be ignorant, the actuality and power in the statement was heart-piercing. It kept haunting me till I decided to do a short review of how the Zimbabwean media’s attitude towards female politicians has proved to be rather skewed.
At a time when the country is lobbying for a 50/50 representation in all sectors, it will most likely remain a pipedream to me given that one of the fundamental instruments needed for construction of public opinion, the media, is leading in psychologically damaging the citizens’ image of female parliamentarians, senators, councillors and governors.
Since 2002, when Women in Politics Support Unit initiated an analysis of coverage of women politicians by the print media in Zimbabwe and found out that there is a need for a lot of work to be done for female politicians to be reported on more often and in a positive manner, little change has been witnessed till today. It is this realisation that also made me believe and conclude that for sure, Linda was right and the evidence to support this is not far to seek.
I personally feel, Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe’s illness and her struggle with cancer was given more coverage in the media than her various, immense contributions to the politics of the country. She is no doubt a peacemaker, a feminist with a passion for a society where women are empowered, an agenda that we all adore. It had however been long since I saw her appearing on the front pages of our newspapers, but when she returned from South Africa for cancer treatment, every paper rushed to make headlines about her. Perhaps I may need to ask, do we really think that’s the only issue worth putting her at the top of the news agenda?
I remember her powerful words, while officially launching the over $3 million Gender Support Programme (GSP) in Harare in 2009. She said:
“Women constitute 52 percent of the Zimbabwe’s population; women are the backbone of the family; women are the majority of small scale farmers that produce the most food in Zimbabwe; women are the custodians of culture and women are the majority of voters . . . how come women are the least represented in all the decision-making bodies in the country?”
Such is the humility of an icon championing the cause of women yet she herself is not given media coverage that reflects her exemplary capabilities. What has to be remembered is that women in politics are generally the face of 52 percent of the national population. As such, media should refrain from undermining the abilities of the few fortunate women who the population has entrusted with office in the hope that their excellence will inspire everyone to support women as leaders.
It has become a syndrome in the media that each time a female politician makes headlines, it is usually in some over-reported corruption scandals or silly crimes that I sometimes question their significance to national concerns.
As I was writing this article, I looked at the pile of newspapers under my desk and the first paper that I picked was one local daily dated Friday 6 January, whose front page has the picture of Senator Tambudzani Mohadi, wife to Home Affairs Co-Minister Kembo Mohadi and the story concurred with my view. In this story she was reported to have been drawn into a bitter farm wrangle with a Beitbridge-based war veteran Given Mbedzi. In such circumstances, no doubt she made it into the front page. But is that the only thing worth making her media’s priority? I don’t think so.
I took the next newspaper, another daily of Wednesday 25 January 2009 and page 9 of the paper disappointed me. Here I don’t mean frustration influenced by any kind of political ideology but from a feminist point of view. The photo of MDC-T councillor for ward 3 in Chegutu, Mrs Locadia Chaipa occupies almost half the page. Before I even read the story and the caption, I knew she was in involved in some kind of squabbles.
The media has been become so much predictable that I was not surprised when I read the headline “Two MDC-T councillors swindle inputs” and the caption under the photo read “MDC-T councillor for Ward 3 in Chegutu Locadia Chaipa at Chegutu magistrate’s courts yesterday.”
So female politicians have to face some kind accusations or appear in courts in order to be seen in the media? I don’t think this will do us any good.
Perhaps these female politicians are only being drawn into the same wagon that has taken women in general in some wilderness where they are hidden into total oblivion in political stories.
A research that was done by a local monitoring organisation covering the period April to June 2011 revealed that women are generally marginalised in the political realm especially the national dailies The Herald, Chronicle, NewsDay and Daily News confirming the other research that was done by Gender Links in 2010 which revealed that women make up 10 percent of news sources in politics and economics in Zimbabwe, a reflection that they are underrepresented in these spheres.
For instance, the research by the local media monitoring organisation shows that both the Government and private media preferred male politicians as main sources of information in stories they carried on their front pages. These accounted for 42 percent of the total voices recorded. Views of women politicians were largely sidelined as these were only given a mere five percent space to air their views in both the public and private papers.
Furthermore, the overall 10 percent of women’s views on key national issues was mostly a result of their institutional functions, rather than a deliberate effort by the media to be gender inclusive. Also, of the 1 071 stories these papers carried on politics, only 170 stories (16 percent) quoted women. The rest focused on men.
The study came to the conclusion that not only were women marginalised in the front pages of the mainstream daily papers, they also hardly featured as serious political actors in the rest of the papers’ political stories. Men seem to be the most trusted and reliable sources of information, a factor that might also be to blame for the under-coverage of female politicians themselves.
Based on these disturbing findings, I realised that the Zimbabwean media surely has failed to learn. Women play a critical role in stabilising volatile political situations especially as we near elections this year. The media should allow the voices of female politicians more to speak to Zimbabwean citizens and not neglect discrimination of female politicians as news makers.
It is of course something worth celebrating to note that the media did a commendable job in encouraging citizens to vote for female candidates during the previous elections, but the story does not end there. Yes they have been put in office, but their voices also need to be heard. They need to remain visible before public confidence in female politicians is undermined.
Perhaps the Zimbabwean media also needs to get some inspiration from what other countries have done to fulfill national visions. Rwanda for instance, took it as a strategy that women become the majority in its parliament in a bid to settle the political turmoil that had crippled the functionality of the East African nation in the 1990s. The trend was also extended to the media, and the strategy proved effective.
In Nigeria, the media has been going an extra mile, rallying behind that oil producing country’s former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was vying for World Bank presidency. Such is the attitude that would do Zimbabwe good if we can have media that is committed to see women rising up.
Lest we forget, Zimbabwe committed itself to the success of and realisation of Millennium Development Goals, and Goal Number Three advocates for promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women. Positive coverage of women in politics will certainly be the starting point in making sure that 50/50 campaign succeeds.
As someone once wrote, the challenge lies with the media to begin to recognise women politicians, their voices, their contributions in decision-making, highlighting issues and the work they are doing in their capacities as representatives of communities.
Media should vigorously tell the success story of women in politics. They should celebrate the bravery, and the prestigious contributions of those women in leadership, and help inject some hope, confidence and courage, not only to those individuals, but also for the young who need something and someone to inspire them to be ambitious enough to aim higher than what society has demarcated as the limit to the success of a woman. Media should be on the ball, playing the role of supporting these individuals.
As the struggle for gender parity increases, media should start changing attitudes towards those women driving us as a nation forward. Maybe, the inspiring words by the head of the World Economic Forum’s Gender parity and Women Leadership Programme, Zaidi Saadi during the launch of the first Africa Gender Parity Group in Johannesburg in 2008 might caution their conduct.
She said, “Women account for a sizeable portion of Africa’s economies and could contribute considerably more if there were greater gender equality…..Both men and women need to work together to close gender gap and thus better leverage women’s talents to increase productivity and prosperity in all of society.”
How about striving for this gender equality even in the way men and women in politics are covered in the media? I feel it will do us good.
l Jephiter Tsamwi is a final year Bachelor of Science Honours Degree student in Journalism and Media Studies at NUST. He can be contacted at [email protected]. Phone: 0733854681. 0777930995
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