As days turn into months, months into years and years into decades, the clamour for equal participation of both male and female gender in all sectors continues to increase. This clamour is seen to be more rampant among women who are always seen playing the gender card on issues and situations where they do not…
Gender inequality remains to be an issue in every sector, especially those that were historically deemed as male-dominated professions. A depiction of journalism in the early 19th century consists of women being told their place of work was at home. Any woman with the aspiration of being a journalist was struck down and told it…
In this episode of #HerMediaDiary Kenyan journalist, Julia Majale talks about her journey to becoming the Managing Editor of Tuko Media. Julia discusses how her early life shaped her leadership skills and the enduring influence of her father and grandmother. She challenges journalists to seize opportunities and to take on extra roles that stretch them,…
It’s time to ditch the stereotypes and cover persons with disabilities as equal members of society who are more than their disability, writes Jackie Lidubwi People with disabilities experience inequalities across many aspects of society. They are often denied access to opportunities available to their non-disabled counterparts. A UN writeup on disability and the…
Three years ago, three university students were at the cusp of their journalism careers, looking forward to starting their journeys in newsrooms in Zimbabwe. However, they met with unforeseen roadblocks. Nicole Kurebwasweka couldn’t get placement for the industrial attachment unit of her journalism course at the University of Zimbabwe. The production department of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation turned her down, saying they…
Janet Otieno was editing the final page of a magazine for the Citizen, a Tanzanian newspaper, when she received a call from human resources. It was 5pm in April 2020, about a month after the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Tanzania. Janet, the acting managing editor and features editor at Mwananchi Communications in Tanzania, stopped mid-sentence…
Online training was not one of our goals for 2020. Nor did we envision training a whopping 200 East African women on six courses. But then the world did not imagine that COVID-19 would become a pandemic. With the support of UNESCO, within the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) framework, we were…
My story started late at night when I received a late night call from my superior which I was tempted to ignore as I was so sleepy thought it was my wake up alarm. Little did I know that it was a wakeup call for me. He asked me to try and apply for the…
“Life is a test, never give up” Journalism is not for a faint heart! Every Female journalists around the world has a story to tell about the terrible ordeal they (have) had been through while in the line of their duties. Some say they missed opportunities, promotions or those ‘big’ assignments because they said no…
To think I almost missed this training! I heard about AWiM’s RCCE programme through a forwarded WhatsApp message in one of the groups I am in. The lady who forwarded it wrote: “guys jaribuni” translated as “guys try your luck.” I applied for the training immediately, then I also forwarded the link to a friend to try her luck. I am on a maternity leave, and both electric and internet services at my place had been interrupted for almost a week….
Safety to me used to be just about physical safety, however that perspective has been broadened via the #RCCE2020 Training of which I am a participant. During my internship period, I faced one of what I can now say were threats but at the time, I did not understand what was happening around me, and I thought that has to happen in every working…
“I raise my voice not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. We cannot succeed when half of us are held back.,” Malala Yousafzai. Gender bias is a preference or prejudice toward one gender over the other. Bias can be conscious or unconscious, and may manifest in many ways, both…
