Working Women Are Shaping Asia Today, But Is The Media Reflecting That?
By Nanditha Raman

Manila, 18 July 2008: While working women are now shaping the new Asia, changing old stereo-types, yet the media has a tendency to overplay things that deal with sex and more salacious stories, argues Usha Rai, a senior journalist from India.

“Mixed images are being sent out by the media today” said Rai, who attended the 17th annual conference of the Asian Media Information and Communication Center (AMIC) here this week. The four-day event focused on how an active and vibrant media can achieve the Millennium Development Goals(MDG).

MDG’s were formulated in September 2000 when the United Nations (UN) gathered at the Millennium Summit to cooperate towards reducing poverty and other forms of human deprivation. The 8 goals embodies specific targets in eliminating poverty worldwide including achieving gender equality

The question of gender equality is a subject of much debate across Asia today as more and women enter the workforce, especially at top professional levels which were previously male domains. This is changing relationships between men and women both at work and in the home.

Traditionally the importance of motherhood is what has defined the role of women in Asia, but this is also changing as women become more financially independent. Yet, these ideas may even have to undergo some change in thinking.

“‘Girl of Today is Mother of Tomorrow’ is the popular campaign catchphrase in China to increase awareness on girls education but in reality there will be over 40 million men without wives in China in 20 years time due to sex ratio imbalance” warned Bu Wei a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the director in the Research Center for Children and Media speaking at the AMIC conference here.

In the new economical era, as working women begin to shape the economic and social scenes, empowerment is more about the ability to make choices. Looking at the society, mass media can be considered a powerful agent in society in transmitting values, perceptions and influencing attitudes.

How has the mass media reflected calls on changing gender roles in Asia? This was a question which came up a number of times in discussions here within the framework of the MDGs. Promoting gender equality and empowering women is the third of the MDGs There is a need for translating this goal into elimination of gender disparities into reality.

Perhaps the media industry itself may be the best indicator of this changing role of women in Asia. Looking within the industry there is a general positive shift in the profile of women. Women journalists are on the rise and in broadcasting women are more prominent as compared to other industries. On the same note there is a long drawn criticism regarding the negative or stereotypical portrayals of women in media especially on television which the most popular medium. If women are continued to be portrayed in the traditional roles or portrayed as sex objects achieving gender equality becomes a distant dream. There is a constant struggle between gender sensitivity and commercialization within the industry.

Awang Ruswandi from Universitas Indonesia noted that research into election coverage in the Indonesian media has shown that there is lack of women journalists as source persons. This he argues reflects badly on the level of democratization of the media, as well as democratic choices in the public sphere.

Prof. Bu Wei argues that if public attitudes towards women in Asia is to change significantly, it is important to look at the way boys and girls are educated. “Media campaigns have considered gender issues relating to women and men, but have overlooked issues on girls and boys” he noted. “If we want to reduce discrimination against women, then we must prevent discrimination against female children”.

“The political solution is to employ strategies to improve girl’s development, and then changing traditional culture will be one of the most significant solutions. In this respect, media will play an important role” argued Prof Bu Wei.