Gender Role in Media

8/12/2019 Gender Role in Media

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Author: RANU TOMAR,M Phil (Development Studies)

Institution: Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi

Address: c/o-Satya, A-11,Top Floor, Mayur Vihar-1, New Delhi-96

E-mail: [email protected]

Telephone: 91-9654428025

GENDER AND MEDIA: STATUS OF WOMEN JOURNALIST

IN HINDI PRINT MEDIA IN INDIA


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GENDER AND MEDIA: STATUS OF WOMEN JOURNALIST IN HINDI

PRINT MEDIA IN INDIA

Author: RANU TOMAR, M Phil (Development Studies)

Institution: Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi

Address: c/o-Satya, A-11,Top Floor, Mayur Vihar-1, New Delhi-96

E-mail: ranutomar2010@gmail comContact number: 91-9654428025
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Abstract:

This paper is an attempt to explore the struggle for gender transformation and

bridging gap between social identities of women and men. The mass-media have been

quick to respond to women as a new growth industry. The relationship between

Media and Women has a certain structure where women are trapped as an object. The

role of women in media-decision making is reflected in the poor representation of

women issues and concerns. The drastically changing media (print) can be seen

through years or especially in post-liberalization period, media has become more

market-oriented. Media-market on one hand has expanded opportunities for women

but the kind of beats or job are assigned to women journalists is to keep them

confined to soft-beats like handling feature writing or shallow writings. Especially the

language chasm between English and Hindi print media is facing too much difference.

The reconstruction and representation of Gender issues is dealt within patriarchal

discourse of the media. And important issue is professional inequality which is

embedded in media that is structured and strongly based on social differences

between man and woman.

It is an analytical study to explore different indicators of status of women journalists

in Hindi Print Media based on my extensive field study conducted with major Hindi

Newspapers in Delhi.

Keywords: Gender, Mass Media & Women, Hindi Print Media, Representation.


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INTRODUCTIONMedia has a role to play in the struggle for gender transformation and bridging

gap between social identities of women and men. While communication studies, even

of the radical critical tendency, have long seemed to be largely gender-blind

(perhaps more a matter of unwillingness to see), one can now justifiably, speak of a

cultural feminist media studies project (Van Zoonen 1991; 1994; Gallagher 2003).

The relationship between Media and women has a certain structure where woman is

trapped as an object. The role of women in media-decision making is reflected in the

poor representation of women issues and concerns. The drastically changing media

(print) can be seen through years or especially in post-liberalization period, media has

become market-oriented. Media-market on one hand has expanded opportunities for

women but the kind of beats or job are assigned to women journalists is to keep

them confined to soft-beats (Tomar Ranu 2009) like handling feature writing or

shallow writings.

The reconstruction and representation of Gender issues is dealt within

patriarchal discourse of the media. The question of gender touches almost every

aspect of the media-culture relationship. Van Zoonen (1991) writes that the meaning

of gender is never given but varies according to specific cultural and historical

settingsis subject to ongoing discursive struggle and negotiation (p45). Here

important issue is professional inequality which is embedded in media and is strongly

based on social differences between man and woman.

The exclusion and oppression of women by transnational corporations is

translated into media representation and employment. To address these issues

UNESCO commissioned major review of the literature worldwide related to women

and Media (Gallagher 1981).


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Gallagher (1981) notes that her review present a picture remarkable only for its

overall consistency when compared from one country to another (p 70). The report

offers considerable evidence in support of conclusion that is:

Representation of women can best be described as narrow. On film,press and the broadcast media, womens activities and interests typically go no

further than the confines of home and family. Characterized as essentially

dependent and romantic, women are rarely portrayed as rational, active or

decisive. Both as characters in fictional media material and as newsmakers in

the press and broadcasting, women are numerically under representation- an

absence which underlines their marginal and inferior status in many spheres

of social, economic and cultural life. Prevalent news values define most

women and most women problems as unnewsworthy, admitting women to

coverage primarily as wives, mothers or daughters of men in the news: intheir own right, they make the headlines usually only as fashionable or

entertainment figures.

This paper is on Status of Women journalists in Hindi Print Media, focuses on issues

affecting the role of women working in print media. I have tried to explore the issues

related to women-under representation in Hindi print media.

Here two things are important, first why women and second why Hindi Print

media. As far as women journalists are concerned, it has been a hard struggle for them

to break the glass-ceiling. The increasing number of women in media cannot ensure

better status of women. The job assigned to them is always not of their choice. Now

why I have taken Hindi print Media? This should be one of the important facts that

Hindi newspapers have the largest readership. The Indian Readership Survey1

conducted in 2009 shows that the largest read local language newspaper is Dainik

Jagran with 55.7 million readers and Dainik Bhaskar with 31.9 million readers. Both

newspapers are published in Hindi, whereas Times of India is the most widely read

1IRS was launched in the year 1995 with an objective of setting an industry standard for readership & other media measurement,

& to provide insights on media & product consumption as well as consumer behavior patterns.


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English daily with 13.3 million readers, followed by Hindustan Times 6.3 million and

The Hindu with 5.2 million readers. To my mind, having a great share of Hindi

language newspapers among readers it matters to analyze status of the engaged

women journalists working in Hindi Print Media in Comparison to English Print

Media.

While keeping this in mind, I prepared open-ended questionnaire to interview

women journalists from Hindi print media.

The questionnaire covers aspects related to:-

Individual profile Work History (for last five years) Work Experience Conditions of Work Hindi v/s English Print media Gendered view in the organization Development Agenda and Women issues

Women ournalists RepresentationStudies have been done on Women representation in Mass media but somewhere

women as workforce in media are untouched or lesstalked, especially as an academic

work. Thus I tried to locate the related aspects of Status of Women in Hindi Print

Media.

Fair gender portrayal is professional and ethical aspiration, similar to respect for

accuracy, fairness and honesty. It is the other side of the coin that says women need

to be more present at higher levels of the news business, both at work and in theunions. In a world where hard news is still mainly reported and presented by male

journalists need to stand up for gender equality. This equality is not just a womens

issue; everyone benefits from eliminating discrimination (UNESCO 2009).


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Despite having certain efforts to promote gender equality in media, ground

reality is far away that is quite visible. How new development paradigm is not

inclusive? Why pie of development doesnt cover people at disadvantaged groups. I

have tried to cover major aspects related to Media, Development and Gender.

Among secondary literature Rama Jhas book Women and The Indian Print

Media(1992) and Ammu Joshep and Kalpana Sharmas work Women in Journalism

Making News (2000) are well-known studies to address women journalists point of

view over gender discrimination in media.

Rama Jha (1992) raises point that why despite women being at helm of affairs

and decision-making position, there is inadequate follow-up on the issues related to

women. Whereas still it is to be seen that whether women are decisive position in

newsroom or not? With the citation of interviews of prominent women journalists, it

came to light that development issues are vitally linked with political issues but it is

unfortunate that kind of reporting is done, establishes no link between the two. In

the arena of beats womens issues are beaten up by political beats.

Further Jha (1992) unravel that it was also came to light that there is very little

follow up on womens issues which has been experienced by various journalists. She

further brings a point that negligence of women issues is also seen as outcome of

ownership of newspapers. Shahnaz Anklesaria Aiyer then working in India Today

believes that because print media is run by men, their priorities are different.

Womens issues dont matter to them and indeed there is sexist bias to that. Whereas

Neena Vyas of The Hindu dismisses the relationship between ownership of

newspapers by women and the consequent wider coverage of womens issues as sexist

in approach. But there is Tavleen Singh who doesnt believe that there are separate

womens issues and women issues sound like gynecological problems.

All interviewed journalists in Rama Jhas (1992) study are from well-known

English newspapers, thus this study doesnt provide situation prevailing in Hindi


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newspapers. She clears that during early decades of entry of women journalists in 70s-

80s, through the experiences of women journalists from English print media it was

noticed that economic and political beats were lucrative to be joined by women as

these have been the bastion of men.Rama Jha (1992) explains that women journalist as part of womens network

like different womens study groups and NGOs work as an activist also utilizing it as

platform. Sensitized women journalists extend the limits on womens issues by

understanding development issues being womens issues and inevitably linked with

political issues. But it doesnt tell whether women journalists themselves would like

to have Union or association of working women journalists so that they can have

united voice for their own issues.

Apart from this Ammu Joshephs work Women in Journalism Making News

(2000) is widely talked study describing plight of women work force in print media

while covering experiences of women journalists and their professional challenges

this study is good work to depict the treatment given to women journalists in print

media. She herself does not subscribe to the hierarchies of hard and soft news

which makes things quite different from Rama Jhas (1992) study that tells about

stereotyping of job for women in media. It can be difference of period because both

studies have their own relevance as Rama Jhas (1992) work covers earlier decades of

women journalists struggles whereas Ammu Joshephs (2000) study deals with large

number of working women by then in print media.

This study is an exploration of the world of Indian print media through eyes of

women situated at different points in the profession while explaining the women-

work force experience in print media, Ammu Joshephs (2000) work deals with the

practical aspects of the profession in the form of limitation and discrimination.

Women journalists got the class advantage definitely like journalist Subha Singh put


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her view that more than gender it is class that influences the way people perceive

you.Ammu points out that content, style, and emphasis of the press in the 1990 sis

remarkably different from what was prevalent in the preceding decades as now

commercial pressure determines the nature of the press. She argues that most women

in journalism in India belong to the upper caste and class and other relatively

privileged communities. She clears it that deliberate and sustained efforts are required

to ensure that more women from disadvantage communities- dalits, adivasis, religious

and ethnic minorities are enabled to participate in the profession.

At global level major study was done known as Global Media Monitoring

Project2 in 2005. This study was co-coordinated by World Association for Christian

Communication (WACC) an international NGO that promotes communication for

social change. This study was conducted in 76 countries across the globe.

This study found that:-

There has been a steady increase in the percentage of news items reportedby women from 28% in 1995, to 31% in 2000, reaching 37% in 2005.

Female reporters have gained more ground in radio and television than in

newspapers. The press lags far behind the electronic media, with only 29%

of stories written by female reporters in 2005.

As news presenters, women are more likely to be found in television thanradio. With 57% of television items presented by women in 2005, this is

the only area in which female outnumber males. In radio 49% of items

were presented by women.

2The Global Media Monitoring Project is the largest and longest longitudinal study on the representation of women in the

worlds media. It is also the largest advocacy initiative in the world on changing the representation of women in the media. It is

unique in involving participants ranging from grassroots community organizations to university students and researchers to

media practitioners, all of whom participate on a voluntary basis. Retrieved 2/03/2010 fromhttp://www.whomakesthenews.org/gmmp-background.html


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The on-screen presence of women decreases with age. Up to the age of34 women are in the majority as both news presenters and reporters on

television. By the age of 50, only 17% of reporters and 7% of presenters

are female. For women in the profession, a youthful appearance is more

highly valued than experience. Male presenters and reporters continue toappear on-screen well into their 50s and even 60s.

In most news organizations, local news is deemed less prestigious thannational or international news. Female reporters are more likely to work

on local stories (44%) than on national (34%) or international stories

(32%).

Female reporters predominate in only two topics weather reports ontelevision and radio (52%) and stories on poverty, housing and welfare

(51%). There is a 50-50 gender balance among reporters in celebrity news,

and in stories on consumer issues. In all other topics, male reporters are in

the majority. Sports news is the least likely to be reported by women, with

just 21% of female reporters.

Overall, male journalists report at the so-called 'hard' end of the newsspectrum such as politics and government (where women report only 32%

of stories). Females are more likely to work on the so-called 'soft' stories

such as social and legal issues (40% reported by women). Although many

'soft' news stories are important, they are not always perceived as such in

the hierarchy of new values. As a result, the work of female journalists is

sometimes under-valued, and women reporters are frequently assigned to

stories that are downright trivialcelebrity news (50% reported by

women), or arts and entertainment (48%).

There are more female news subjects in stories reported by femalejournalists (25%) than in stories reported by male journalists (20%).

This Global Media Monitoring project concludes that women have made great strides

in the news media over the past decade. But they still struggle to achieve equal

treatment. Older female professionals are rarely seen on television: for women,


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appearance is valued more highly than experience. Female reporters frequently work

in local news beats and on stories at the 'soft' end of the news spectrum. This could be

one of the reasons why there are more female news subjects in stories reported by

female journalists. But, irrespective of who reports the news, the fundamental

question is: why do so few women make the news at all. The Global Media

Monitoring Project 2005 concludes, the world we see in the news is a world in which

women are virtually invisible (Gallagher 2005).

Further Gallagher (2005) describes that the use of stereotypes reflects a mental

block not only in terms of what society may expect from women, but also more

seriously in terms of what women may expect from themselves. The structures of

many societies have been based on assumptions of sex-biased roles, which are

entrenched in the use of language. When gender-biased language is used in a story

(for instance, craftsman, businessman, fireman, and policeman), journalists support a

destructive bias that suggests women are excluded or incapable of playing their roles.

True gender equality should liberate both men and women from the limitations of

such narrow thinking.

It is not impossible to produce news stories that are gender sensitive. It

just means thinking more creatively about the topic at handwhom it

concerns, who should be included in its coverage, in what way and for

what purpose. says Margaret Gallagher, author of the GMMP(2005).

It has been a global view of the contribution of women work force in media. In

context of India, a study on Status of Women Journalist in Print Media3 was

3This study was executed by the Press Institute of India (PII), through empirical data that was collected from almost all the

States and Union Territories of the country. The objective of the research was to examine the problems and issues confronting

women working in the media, to gauge the extent of direct and indirect discrimination in the workplace and to identify

contemporary issues that need to be addressed. Retrieved 2/2/2010, from

http://ncw.nic.in/pdfreports/Status%20of%20Women%20Journalists%20in%20India.pdf


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conducted in 2002 by Press Institute of India commissioned by National Commission

for Women. A two pages questionnaire was distributed in three languages to

journalists across the country, from Punjab and Shillong in North and North East to

Kanyakumari in the South and from Calcutta in the East to Kotach in West.

This study reveals that women in regional-vernacular press are lagging far behind

their colleagues in the English language press. There is vast difference in the wages

earned by those in English national newspapers and those in regional media. This

report says that in regional press men and women are hired like contract labour on

daily wages. They are extremely insecure and invariably it is the women that are the

first to be axed.

The level of awareness of basic working conditions is very low on some key issues:

31 per cent were not aware if any equal employment policy existed in theirOrganization.

29 per cent did not know if women were targeted for filling vacancies in theirOrganizations.

19.5 per cent did not know whether formal appeal procedures or mechanismsfor handling grievances existed in their organization while 50.7 per cent were

sure of no such facility.

10 percent are not aware of any formal training programme in theirorganization while 42.3 said that no such facility was provided.

87.6 percent are not aware of any superannuation scheme or believe that itdoes not apply to them.

Job segregation was an issue of significance for many of the respondents. 24.7 per cent

feel that they do not have access to all areas of work and that lifestyle, arts, gender,

fashion and education are traditional areas reserved for women. But 87.3 per cent

believe that women have capability in all areas of journalism.

The changes that women want in their workplace include:

Positions advertised and proper selection and interview proceduresintroduced;


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Provision of training about equal employment opportunity and gender issuesfor their male colleagues;

Transparency in terms and conditions of contract system of employment; Childcare facilities; Maternity leave; Insurance; An elected (not nominated) body for redressal of grievances.

Interestingly, childcare at work place and insurance cover emerged as the most

required facilities. 54.4 per cent thought that there had been no development

(permanent part-time, flexibility of working hours, special leave, childcare facilities,

study leave etc.) at their workplace in the interest of women generally. Only 29.4 per

cent of the respondents felt that their employers were responsible for changes that

had taken place. Most of these were perceived to have been brought about in response

to individual demands.

This study (2004) has been a major indicator of status of women in Print

media. Though Hindi Print media is not separately given that much importance but

collectively under print media it has been covered. It is to be noticed that since this

study was conducted, seven years have been passed, opportunities and competition

has been increased but still women journalists are at the disadvantaged end.

Women in the English language press do not have the same problems as

their sisters in the language press. They are better paid, and even if on contract, have

better facilities at workplace, have toilets and washrooms, get transport back home

after night shift, get maternity leave and various perks and privileges says the report.

Women might have been well off in the English language press in terms of

salaries and other perks compared to the regional language press but with the contract

system becoming a norm now, women seem to be getting short-changed. They do not

know how to read a contract, or how to negotiate. They have no idea of the benefits

they can get or perks they should demand. They tend to accept what is offered and


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end up getting less than their male colleagues who are junior to them or do not get

normal benefits like leave, reimbursements, Provident Fund and so on. The situation

seems better in other languages in the south but contract system is seen as a bane in

the English newspapers. The Hindu, an English newspaper of South India seems to be

the only organization that continues to recruit people on Wage Board scales.

The biggest burden on women in journalism is their domestic responsibilities.

Quite a few women in English language press have put off having children in favour

of their careers. Most women who took break to bring up children or even those who

stayed home for a few months to have children believe they lost out on growth and

promotions. The report (2004) provides findings of young mothers that they would

like child care facilities in their work place so that they can concentrate on their

work. Some suggested that organization should consider having child care facilities

not just for women but also for men as it would go a long way in building an enabling

atmosphere for new and young mothers and fathers.

Report (2004) mentions the plight of early journalism for women that there

were very few women in newspapers in the early sixties and they were not allowed to

do night duty. According to the labour laws, there should be at least two women on a

night shift and office also has to provide transport back home after night duty. So this

important shift, which brings out the newspaper, was devoid of women till the mid-

seventies. While several news editors and editors used this pretext of the law to keep

women out of the desk in newspapers, there were a few women, who quoted the law,

to avoid the night shift.

These findings show sexual harassment is part of work culture in media

organizations in India but women either does not know how or, for a wide variety of

reasons, choose not to do anything about it.

Sexual harassment at the workplace is not only a gross violation of womens

right to a safe and supportive work environment but also, more fundamentally, of


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their basic right to livelihood. The Supreme Court ruling of 1997, commonly referred

to as the Vishakha Guidelines4, is quite explicit about the range of behaviours that the

apex court views as sexual harassment under the law.

In addition, Supreme Court mandates the setting up of sexual harassment

complaints and redressal committees within the workplace that include at least one

member external to the organization with relevant knowledge and experience in

dealing with such matters.

Analysis of the field studyThis paper is an exploration of Status of women in Hindi Print media and is

worth studying during cut-throat competition in globalised media market. Precisely,

now media is all about electronic and visual production media. When news

organizations ignore and stereotype women, they contribute to continuing

misunderstanding and conflict in the world. News organizations include women but

fail to pay attention to cultural differences and specific contexts. The hierarchical

media structure can make its victim both male and female but female journalists are at

the most vulnerable end.

The language divide between Hindi and English print media clears

discriminatory grounds status of women. Mrinal Pandey5writes that unlike women in

the English Media, women workers in the Hindi media have traditionally remained

largely desk-bound. Most of them come from small towns and have studied in Hindi

medium colleges. The media organizations they work in, with very few exceptions,

4This was the case, which bought sexual harassment at workplace into public glare. BhanwariDevi a Saathin of a developmentprogram run by the state government of Rajasthan, fighting against child and multiple marriages in villages, tried to stop child

marriage , Gujjar family got infuriated by her interference, and on September 1992 five men gang raped Bhanwari. Unable to get

justice, women groups had filed a petition in the supreme court of India, under the name of, 'Vishakha', asking the court to give

certain directions regarding the sexual harassment that women face at the workplace. The result is the Supreme Court judgment,

which came on the 13th august 1997, and gave the Vishakha guidelines.

5She is an Indian television personality, journalist and author, and till recently chief editor of Hindi Daily, Hindustan. She left

Hindustan on Aug 31, 2009. She is appointed chairperson of Prasar Bharati, the apex body of official Indian Broadcast Media.


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are owner driven, preoccupied with profit margins and politically ambitious at all

levels.

As the data from the National Readership Survey6 (NRS) 2003 rolls in, it is

clear there is a new trend in media growth. Globalization with its symbiotic twin,

urbanization has effectively leveled the playing field in the English language media,

accounting for despair among magazines (down almost by 22%), dismay among

general interest/film and entertainment journals and wild celebration among major

Hindi dailies (Press Trust of India Report 2004).

While being fourth estate7 media enjoys immense power. Despite having its

own contradictions regulation of media is challenging fact. Provisions like Working

Journalist Act8, 1957 is hardly ditto followed by the media organizations so it is also

said that media is has no teeth. Apart from this issues like conditions of work, wage

board, job security, safety are seen unsolved problems ever since.

This paper reveals factual gendered biasness in the behavior of the existing media

practices. I want to throw light on the qualitative and quantitative differences in this

field where gender difference are conceived as professional differences.

6This provide estimates of the readership of major newspapers and consumer magazines, showing the size and nature of theaudiences they achieve the survey covers some 300 newspapers, newspaper supplements and magazines

7The Fourth stateis a term referring to the press. In this sense the term goes back at least to Thomas Carlyle who attributed it.

The term in current use is now appropriated to the Press, with the earliest use in this sense described by Thomas Carlyle in his

book On Heroes and Hero Worship.

8 The Act provides for regulation for certain conditions of service of working journalists and other persons employed in

newspaper establishments. The Act provides that for the purpose of fixing or revising rates of wages in respect of working

journalists, the Central Government as and when necessary shall constitute Wage Board. After receipt of the recommendations

of the Board, the Central Government is required to make an order in terms of recommendations and this order becomes

applicable on the class of news paper establishments for which the Board has recommended.


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Like Bhasha Singh of Nai Duniya says that whenever it comes to a girl to join

journalism it is made clear to her that there is no girl and boy in this profession so

come may what a journalist is journalist.

During interviews I found that media as an industry is taking full advantage of

cheap labour as creative or intellectual labour where woman is at disadvantage end.

Because contract system supports hire and fire policy of the media-industry. Bhasha

Singh emphasized that when downsizing was done in the pretext of economic melt-

down, a large chunk of women journalists was fired abruptly left with no option.

Here I want to make a point that contract system snatches all liberty to negotiate

for rights as a worker that put women journalists as in more vulnerable end. The

language divide is vast between Hindi and English print media. Hindi journalism is

taken inferior to English print media that affect the status of women journalists also.

Poonam Pandey working in Navbharat Times, a Hindi news paper of Times group

clears that even newspapers of the same group have salary disparities. She says that

female journalists working with Times of India(English edition), are being paid more

in comparison to the Navbharat Times which is a Hindi newspaper of the same group.

The disparities between Hindi and English print media are vast that almost all

respondents accept that English media has better working environment, perks, salary,

facilities, job security in comparison to Hindi print media. It sharply indicates the

poor status of women journalists in Hindi print media.

Smita Mishra of Dainik Bhaskar said that number of female journalists working in

English print media is higher than the Hindi print media and it is quite visible that

English print media has better conditions of work, better salary, job satisfaction and a

status also in comparison to Hindi print media.


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Similar to the report of Press Institute of India, it was found during interview

from Mala Dixit of Dainik Jagran who joined this profession as a legal reporter in 1996

said that newspapers shun recruiting women journalists as it requires further expenses

on security measures for them so better dont have women journalists especially for

night shifts. It is a kind of safety valve approach from the organization side. This fact

was found in the report also that several newspapers are reluctant to employee

women because they would take maternity leave; have to be provided transport after

night duty.

Regarding poor plight of working conditions, Neelam Jeena of a regional

paper Vishal Andhra Bharat said that now situation is ameliorated whereas she also

faced days when during her early days of profession she had to share common toilet

also.

The shocking fact is that despite facing and heard of sexual harassment

incidents, no organization has any formal body to address these issues of gender

sensitization which was found in report also. None of the interviewees told that any

such committee for gender-sensitization exists in their workplace. Though female

journalists are average comfortable to approach to higher authorities but whenever

any incident of sexual harassment is occurred it is always a closed cabin decision that

cannot be trusted at all. And most of the times it is ignored in the name of trivial issue

and openness.

Sarvesh, a senior photo journalist, has been freelancing for last 20 years,

presently working with Hindustan Hindi daily, but on the contract basis. She herself

faced incidents of sexual harassment and she also informed that one of her colleagues

in Hindustan faced such an incident but the then editor-in-chief Mrinal Pande who

was supposed to react positively made girl leave her job.

While taking qualitative information from interviews I have observed social

profiling of the women journalists that indicates that they are educated from good


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institutions and many of them have professional qualification of Mass media except

the one who is photo journalist and completed her graduation few years before. It is

irony that most of them are working for more than 12 years and are on contract

system. They themselves are from upper caste and also shared that they have hardly

heard of any women journalists from disadvantaged communities especially from

oppressed class thus one size cannot fit all. Here I find discrimination based on caste,

class, religion, culture is significant to be considered.

The major factor to indicate status of women in Hindi print media is

accredited status which was untouched even in report of press Institute of India and

in earlier work of Ammu Josheph and Kalpana Sharma. This major aspect is missing

from the studies done so far specially report of Press Institute of India. To my mind it

can be a decisive factor because itsall about job security in media as women have no

strong position in media it is rarely seen that women are accredited journalists. In my

sample only two women journalists are accredited journalists. During an interview

Smita Mishra of Dainik Bhaskar said that there is untold rule that certain higher

positions would never be given to women journalists.

The gender-bias is not observed by many of the female journalists now, like

whenI interviewed Mala Dixit of Dainik Jagaran who is special correspondent theresaid that City like Delhi cannot have cases of gender-discrimination in Print media

but it can be case of small cities and towns, no longer it exist. Because the

homogenous nature of competition has made things common for all thus even

existing discriminations are overlooked. I sense that perhaps now female journalists

do not see any gender-bias and reason is that women are taking risks to break barriers

of media but my point is that what is stance of other side that control opportunities,

resources and accessibility.


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But shocking fact is that the duration of working hour is 10-12 hours even for

day shifts whereas according to Working Journalist Act9(1955) working hours are six-

hours for day shifts and in case of night shift it is five and a half-hours.

As per the demand of reporting job in city like Delhi where distance and

safety issue matter, female journalists said that organization doesnt provide any

transportation facilities but sometimes in case of late night assignment, it provided

dropping facility. In such situation journalists either uses their personal vehicle,

avoids night shifts, use public transportation also or escorted by male colleagues also.

The way responses were received that organizations shun recruiting women

journalists it became clear when the status of maternity leave was sought.

Even if who agree that they have paid maternity leave system said that

organization does not follow as it is but always put terms and conditions.

Apart from this another major factor to assess status of women journalists in

Hindi print media is paid maternity leave which is not even in the knowledge of

many women journalists. If any organization has this provision, it has its own terms

and conditions with all intentions not to offer it to the female employees. The study

of Press Institute of India found that quite a few women in the press put off marriage

and children to be in the profession where promotions are rare in newspapers.

Despite growing media-business and opportunities to report new beats,

female journalists feel that still there is discrimination regarding assigning beats

unless experience or anything else like source help. They are not free to work as per

their own choice and have to listen to authorities otherwise job would be lost. Still

the job designed for female journalist is not of her choice, Sarvesh a senior photo-

journalist of Hindustan said that though I have been freelancing for last 20 years for

press, recently after tough struggle I got a job on three years contract system. Despite

her well-recognized work on photography she faced discrimination regarding

9An Actto regulate certain conditions of service of working journalistsand other persons employed in newspaper establishment.Retrieved 12/03/2010 from http://www.ijuindia.org/wjact.html


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coverage of the events. Whereas she covered Kargil war, did photo-feature, photo-

exhibition but couldnt get hardcore photography in press.

Since newspapers are also catering target groups and working on marketing

aspects issue-based reporting is at stake. All female journalists said that women-issues

are not given sufficient space especially because of stereotyping of women issues, they

are considered of low news value, it is different thing that nowadays sex and crime

has a big market whereas dowry is no longer a crime for news says Bhasha Singh of

Nai Duniya. But women-issues related to developmental politics are neither raised

nor given space in print media.

It has been interesting to know that no organization or union can work for

women to ameliorate status of women in print media as to some extent women

themselves are responsible for their underrepresentation. During interviews few

suggested that the State should intervene to regulate media and its discriminatory

policies to favour women from all communities and believe that its women own

struggle and she has to come forward all the time.

With the changing nature of reporting and newspapers strategies, women-

issues underwent changes. Female journalists see that women-issues are political

issues and part of development and agree that politics and development are inter-

related thus women issues. Whereas some believe that women issues should be

covered separately to bring them to light then only uneven development can be

visible because so far patch work is done in the name of equality.

Conclusion

Findings of the study raises question on the paradoxical nature of media i.e. on

one hand it advocates to bring real picture of society world over but doesnt dare to

challenge its own hierarchical character. Large number of women are working in the


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media but they lack of even basic facilities like transport maternity leave, childcare,

healthy working environment and equal access to decision making position. Marriage

is seen as a big hurdle in this profession so women are even ready to compromise with

their family life and avoid having kids. But it never reduces their household

responsibilities at all. Only if partner is also in same profession or is really cooperating

then only married life can work. Well-known journalist R Akhileshwari, says that a

female journalists is given mountain of work but does not get recognition. As a

woman bitterly pointed out, why speak of male colleagues, even the husband finds it

difficult to accept the wifes competence (Press Trust of India Report 2004).

There are several women at mid-level and senior level in The Hindu- women

who worked themselves up from the ranks to the top position of deputy editors,

special correspondents, chief-sub-editors and so on. The Indian Express has had a long

tradition of employing women as reports many of whom have risen to top positions.

But not in case of Hindi print media except Mrinal Pandey, former editor-in-chief of

Dainik Hindustan.

While studying the job insecurity as contract system prevails makes

circumstances so volatile and in favour of the media-houses. Neerja Chowdhury,

Political columnist and commentator of Indian Express, says that though women are

triply loaded in media but being under contract system it makes their position weak

to demand their rights and unable to negotiate. The large chunk of women is working

on all beats which earlier assumed as man-bastion.

Sexual Harassment at the workplace is a gross violation of womens right to a

safe and supportive work environment. The Supreme Court ruling of 1997, commonly

referred to as the Vishakha Guidelines, is quite explicit about the range of behaviors

that the apex court views as sexual harassment under law. Finding of the study show

that sexual harassment is part of work culture in media organizations but women do

not know how or, for a wide variety of reasons. Choose not to do anything about it.


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As organizations have no functional body to deal with these incidents. Why this

ignoring attitude is in practiced? If media organization cannot work to abide by

guidelines then its credibility is in danger.

The status of language also decides many things in the media. Bhasha Singh of

Nai Duniya says that being the language of elite and ruling class English print media is

progressing leaps and bound but Hindi print media is hegemonic thus people working

in Hindi print media are prey of inferior complex. Even female journalists of English

media have an edge over female journalist of Hindi print media.

Almost all women in language media felt that women are not recognized as

professionally competent today. This leads to widespread discrimination in salary,

promotions and work assigned making it very difficult for women to survive in the

field (Press Trust of India Report 2004). There should be some measures for

registration of women-man workforce in print media separately for Hindi and

English. Job security is must in media, thus media organization should not withdraw

from playing positive role for its intellectual labour.

Now commercialization of mass-media has make things more tough, since

very olden days journalism had no certain requirements of the candidates but with

emergence of modern education system now it has become more glamorized that

talks about global media and provides opportunities to certain people who have access

to resources but it really ignores women from disadvantaged groups. It needs to be

considered that how degree of discriminations affect women of particular class, caste,

culture, religion.

When news organizations ignore and stereotype women, they contribute to

continuing misunderstanding and conflict in the world. When news organizations

include women but fail to pay attention to cultural differences and specific contexts,

it indicates that again it replicates the system based on inequalities and earns profit.


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The hierarchical media structure can make its victim both male and female but female

journalists are at the most vulnerable end.

Finally, my study raises thing that how changing patterns of media industry

treats women and ignored to accept her as a professional entitled to enjoy every

professional facilities equal to man. Why there is low visibility of women journalists

working in Hindi print media? There is need to analyze the language chasm between

Hindi and English print media which is making women to compromise with their

status and they are under representation.

I found that this study is not sufficient to reach to any conclusion but indicates

number of things having further research ground. Here it is noticeable that contract

system is making things more difficult for women since vulnerabilities increases with

job insecurity and there is no forum or union for addressing the issues. The findings

are showing that women journalists are at compromising end and their work is not

being recognized.

The representation of women in mass-media is talked a lot but women within

media as workforce is less considered issue. The exclusion and oppression of women

by transnational corporations is translated into media representation and

employment. Now commercialization of mass-media has make things more tough,

since very olden days journalism had no certain requirements of the candidates but

with emergence of modern education system now it has become more glamourized

that talks about global media and provides opportunities to certain people who have

access to resources but it really ignores women from disadvantaged groups. It needs to

be considered that how degree of discriminations affect women of particular class,

caste, culture, religion.

Finally, my paper based on field study raises things that how changing patterns

of media industry treats women and ignores to accept her as a professional entitled to

enjoy every professional facilities equal to man. Why there is low visibility of women


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journalists working in Hindi print media? Why women journalists are not decisive

force? Though it indicates silent revolution but it is less visible. Moreover, the class,

caste and status in society work to define the position and work culture in media.

There is need to analyze the language chasm between Hindi and English print media

which is making women to compromise with their status and they are under

representation.


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Documents

Gender Role in Media