This handbook is a timely, illustrated and easy-to-read guide and resource material for journalists. It evolved primarily out of a desire to equip all journalists with more information and understanding of gender issues in their work. It is addressed to media organisations, professional associations and journalists’ unions seeking to contribute to the goal of gender equality.

This booklet gives added argument and dynamism to a campaign that should be taken up in very newsroom, every media house and every union meeting. Journalism has its roots in the fight for decency, progress and rights for all. It will honour its tradition and reinvigorate the profession when the ideas, guidelines and advice in these pages are put into practice.

INTRODUCTION
If media are a mirror of society as they should be, they certainly need to reflect better the fact that gender equality is a fundamental human right. It is about equal treatment of men and women, and encompasses issues such as equal pay for equal work, equal access to decision making bodies, employment, pensions, health care, promotions, maternity and paternity leave.

In journalism it also means fair gender portrayal in the news, the use of neutral and non-gender specific language, and women not being pigeonholed as ‘lifestyle’ or ‘soft’ news reporters.

It is essential that the media promote gender equality, both within the working environment and in the representation of women. Media should open this debate and highlight the issue in the news agenda to better inform society and to overcome gender stereotypes.

Journalists’ unions and associations have a key role to play in this work, not least by ensuring that equal treatment for all media workers remain on media’s agenda.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), UNESCO and other United Nations agencies all promote these principles, yet nowhere in the world so far has true and total gender equality been accomplished. “We still have a long way to go, says UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. “Women are still severely hampered by discrimination, lack of resources and economic opportunities, by limited access to decision-making and by gender-based violence”.

Journalism is no exception. Inside media and in the work of journalists we see evidence of how much still needs to be done to achieve equal rights for women. This booklet provides guidelines to journalists and union activists on ways of bringing gender equality into the mainstream of our profession.

The booklet is divided into four sections. Section One, ‘women journalists in the media’ sets out the current status of women media professionals, the level and areas of inequality and measures that are used to address them.

Section Two ‘stereotypes in the media’ examines media performance in portrayal of women and reinforcing or breaking down existing stereotypes and raises some of the key professional challenges facing journalists in their reporting.

Section Three ‘women in the unions and associations’ examines the role unions, professional organisations and union activists can play in promoting equality and ensuring women are properly represented in their decision making bodies

Section Four ‘ resources and contacts’ points to the tools that will get the job done- the resources that tackle gender equality in the media and in the workplace, as well as a set of useful contacts who promote women’s rights and gender equality in the media.

Visit Getting the Balance Right: Gender Equality in Journalism Download Page

You can download Getting the Balance Right: Gender Equality in Journalism in PDF format.

Compiled and edited by Aidan White, with thanks to Mindy Ran, Lena Calvert, Faranak Atif, Anna Noonan, Sarvesh, Judith Marloff, Oliver Money-Kyrle, Pamela Morinière, Paco Audije and Ernest Sagaga.

International Federation of Journalists, International Press Centre,
Résidence Palace, Block C, 155 Rue De La Loi, 1040 Brussels
Tel: +32 2 235 2200 Fax: +32 2 235 2219
E-mail: ifj@ifj.org http:://www.ifj.org

PREFACE
One of the greatest challenges facing journalists, both men and women, is to resist the culture of casual stereotype in our everyday work.

That is no easy task when media are full of images and cliché about women and girls. Many are relatively harmless, but some, often the most powerful, portray women as objects of male attention -- the glamorous sex kitten, the sainted mother, the devious witch, the hard-faced corporate and political climber.

In every region and culture there are fixed images, deeply entrenched prejudices and biased reflexes that pose challenges to journalists and media. This booklet urges us to do more to confront these distortions in our newsrooms and in our unions.

In spite of the progress made over the last 25 years—and there are more women in media and more female executives than ever before—media still churn out female stereotypes that limit the power of women in society. According to one global survey, if we continue at the current rate of progress it will take another 75 years to achieve gender equality in media. ...

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