International Women’s Day 2024: #InspireInclusion in and through media

07 Mar International Women’s Day 2024: #InspireInclusion in and through media

International Women’s Day is a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. Each year, this day serves as a reminder of the progress made towards gender equality and highlights the work that still needs to be done.

For International Women’s Day 2024 we are encouraged to imagine “a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated.”

This year’s campaign calls for action to “break down barriers, challenge stereotypes, and create environments where all women are valued and respected.”

The space for inclusion in the news media industry is vast.

Media monitoring evidence reveals that the probability for underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women across the range of news-making roles increases exponentially when they are indigenous, racial or ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities and/or refugees.

In Latin America for example, only 3% of the people in the news are from Indigenous or tribal groups and of these only one in five is a woman.

“The failure to extend the opportunity for more citizens to tell their own stories in their own words, to tell the stories which are important to them and, also, to a broad range of people, compromises the value of the news to its multiple and diverse publics,” notes the 6th GMMP Final Report.

The global communication rights organization WACC calls its members, partners, and networks to take action to champion the substantive inclusion of diverse women in news media organisations, in media leadership and decision-making positions.

We call for advocacy to drive fair and balanced inclusion of women from all backgrounds in media content, free of gender stereotypes.

5 Ways to #InspireInclusion

1. Use the Gender Ethics Compass to gain an understanding of gender-responsive journalism.
2. Rate news media for gender-balanced reporting with the Media Gender Equality Scorecard.
3. Build your capacity to act with the “Mission Possible” Gender and Media Advocacy Training Toolkit.
4. Call out sexist reporting by using the “This is NOT Ok!” template to write a letter to the editor.
5. Share on social media with the hashtag #InspireInclusiveMedia about how you are creating space for the inclusion of women in the news media industry. And don’t forget to tag @Global.Media.Monitoring.Project on Facebook, @whomakesthenews on X, and @gmmpglobal on Instagram!

Photo: Saraí Cristina, 15, produces a program for an Indigenous community radio station in Honduras. “I like talking about issues that affect young people and women, about the systems that keep us poor and how to confront them.” (c) Sean Hawkey/Life on Earth

WACC stands for the World Association for Christian Communication, an international organization that promotes communication as a basic human right, essential to the dignity of women and men. It advocates full access to information and communication, and promotes open and diverse media. WACC coordinates the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), which every 5 years since 1995 has taken the pulse of gender equality and women’s rights in the world news media. The GMMP is made possible by the volunteer participation of civil society groups, associations of concerned media professionals and academic researchers around the world.