15. Sex Discrimination

The code says women and men should be treated equally as news subjects and news sources but everyone knows that almost all media institutions in Kenya are rampant with all sorts of discrimination based on sex. Few journalists in this country have conceptualized the idea of gender equality as a human right issue. According to Maureen O’Neil, President of the North-South Institute, there is a growing conviction among women activists in virtually every country that women’s rights are human rights. However, she argues, securing rights for women – rights within the family, rights to won property, rights to abortion, rights to vote , rights to move about freely without a husband’s or male relative’s agreement, right to pass on citizenship – frequently have not been seen as central to “development”.

She says: “In countries of the North, the fight for legal rights has animated women’s struggle for separate personhood, as legal rights have always been seen as stepping stones to equality. This struggle for just, legal treatment for women is now going on around the world.” That is except for Kenya and many other African countries. The struggle for gender equality has yet to knock the media door, forget its opening that door and entering the newsrooms.

When the nominated MP , Njoki Ndungu, tabled the Sexual Offences Bill in Parliament in early May in 2006, Kenyan journalists missed a wonderful opportunity to prove that newsrooms are not as chauvinistic as many suspect. Like the rest of the Kenyan male dominated community the media made fun of the Bill despite the fact that sexual offences in Kenya are as heinous as they are escalating. The reason could be the fact that most of the decision making positions in all the major media houses are male dominated despite the fact that schools of journalism throughout the country train equal number of male and female journalists. As a result of the lackadaisical manner in which the Ndungu Bill was handled by the media it was drastically mutilated before it was accepted by the majority of Kenyan parliamentarians.

Human Rights for Women

As stated before, gender issues are now being perceived as an important element of human rights for women. Men can no longer be allowed to continue to succeed economically, politically and socially at the expense of women who are left far too behind. They cannot be let to get away with it all by simply saying that behind every successful man is a woman. The woman today would rather not be behind anybody's success but her own. She wishes some men took the trouble to be behind her success for a change. All she wants however is to be at the same level of success with men because she knows it would take a long time before she is allowed to play the leading role.

Time has however come when gender issues to be openly discussed through the Press even though, by and large, the mass media remains male dominated. In the past, indeed until very recently, gender issues were not regarded by journalists, including female journalists, as important enough to warrant front page treatment in newspapers or to be used as first items in Television or Radio news bulletins. The reasons for that are many and complicated but the situation will not change unless we conduct a thorough examination about what determines the subjects covered by journalists, who assigns them and who allocates the space or air time used by the stories once they are written.

Needless to say, we may also have to examine how the stories on gender issues are written before they are used by editors as "hard" news stories, features, news bulletins or film documentaries. That examination will be incomplete without first determining what gender issues are and how to go about making sure journalists in future do not ignore them. Women being part and parcel of humanity, makes it extremely difficult to distinguish which aspect of human existence needs to be highlighted so as to enable us to evaluate women's role in society and whether that role is being given its due respect and recognition. But if we agree that gender issues are basically Human Rights issues then it becomes less cumbersome to list aspects of life which tend to disfavour women or discriminate against them. In the Kenyan context the list can be very long.

Poverty among women

Though they are the most hard working group, women in Kenya cannot be said to be given a fair opportunity to either earn decent incomes or own property. Despite the hard work they put up, many of them appear to be among the groups with lowest incomes. Apart from being denied a fair opportunity to make a good income for themselves they also happen not to be given a fair chance to take part in making important economic decisions. There are few of them in the administration and even fewer in parliament, large numbers of their existence as voters notwithstanding. A very small number of them are in courts and in local government.

One hardly hears of their representation in big financial institutions. For these reasons and more, it becomes impossible to see stories about women's poverty as such. No one seems to be concerned about their poverty. Journalists writing about economic issues or business stories hardly ever highlight the mistreatment of women in the economic activities of the country mainly because many of them are either gender insensitive or they simply happen to be men writing about male dominated affairs.

Business assignments specifically to cover the unfair imbalance against women are not made – hence business pages hardly ever carry stories about the mistreatment of women in this important sector of the country's economy. Past mistakes can only be corrected by sensitizing present business writers to gender issues or better still making sure that women journalists hold important positions in business sections of editorial departments.

Violence against Women.

According to a Unesco - conducted research, stories written in Kenyan newspapers depict men and women playing their traditional roles which associate men with strength, leadership, decision-making and independence while women are associated with the very opposite of these characteristics. Stories about violence against women are therefore hardly written by journalists in Kenya mainly because male editors do not assign journalists to cover them or when they are written they are used in the inside pages as fillers since journalists who are insensitive to gender issues do not see them as "news".

A government survey published by the Daily Nation of May 26, 2006 indicated that violence against women went up from 11,867 to 12,036, an in increase of 169 in one year alone. Most of the women who reported violence at that time were battered by the spouses. According to the report many more cases were unreported. The report said rape, attempted rape, incest, defilement and assault were listed as common offences committed against women.

“Last year,” said the report, “1,451 rape cases were reported, while those on defilement were 1,416. Assault and battery cases topped 9,169. In a bid to check rising cases of violence against women, the Government posted specially trained offices to Nairobi’s Kilimani police station to deal with such cases”. Gender desks were also set up at every district police headquarters to encourage victim of violence to report cases.

Who should determine what is news in modern day journalism? It is obviously unfair to continue publishing front pages stories of male politicians calling each other all sorts of names day in and day out when women are being seriously injured by their husbands as they "instill discipline" into them by physically battering them up without a single word being written in our newspapers about these shameful activities. To many male journalists when a politician insults another it is first class news deserving front page treatment, but when a husband causes serious bodily harm to his wife it is simply a private domestic affairs unworthy of any publicity.

According to Unesco, only a small minority of women in Kenya are considered to be newsmakers; and the exclusion of women from the "news" is of course related to the definition of news. This definition needs to be re-examined if gender issues are to get fair coverage in our newspapers, TV and radio stations. The problem of lack of coverage about violence against women in Kenya is caused by more or less the same insensitivity of male editors who assign reporters to various tasks. It is also caused by absence of women journalists in decision-making positions in newspapers.

Studies conducted in India about the coverage of women affairs reveal a situation which is not very different from what we see in our own country namely: Women are under-represented in general, and occupy less central roles than men in TV programmes and in newspaper stories. Marriage and parenthood are considered more important to women than to men; and the traditional division of labour is shown as typical in marriage. Women on TV are more passive than men. Women are absent from action and adventure programmes or/and from decision making roles. There is a tendency of depicting women as victims rather than aggressors while their financial and emotional dependence on men and their unwillingness or incapacity to solve their own problems are all magnified. Poverty and violence against women are two of many subjects which could occupy much more prominent positions on our newspaper pages as well as prime time of our TV and radio programmes.

There are many subjects about women which male journalists who are insensitive to gender issues are not eager to cover. Lack of interested female journalist to cover them means subjects such as forced female mutilation; unequal job opportunities, educational opportunities etc; polygamy and forced early marriages; lack of legal awareness among women victimised by men; cultural and religious beliefs that tend to go against women's human rights; laws being used to subordinate women; health issues which endanger women's lives such as illegal abortions and unequal partnership in marriages are really not given media prominence they deserve.

FGM

May be one aspect about violation of human rights against women in Kenya that is so difficult to write about is FGM which was banned in 2001 followed by Children’s Act of 2002 which criminalizes it but is still widespread because of socialization and religious beliefs. Writing for Women’s eNews’ May 27th 2006 edition, Ochieng Ogodo says after being outlawed FGM has now gone underground “to the dismay of many anti-FGM advocates who worked to dissuade midwives from performing the traditional rite.” Ogodo claims FGM is now conducted under a cloak of secrecy in more clinical environment such as rural and small city hospitals.

He says there even accounts of mobile FGM clinics in which nurses an clinicians move from village to village, easily eluding police . If these claims are true they are yet to be exposed by journalists. Ogodo explains the practice is widely believed to increase the girl’s chances of marriage, prevent promiscuity, and promote easy childbirth. “Women who do not circumcise their daughters run the risk of being seen as irresponsible, immoral and imitators of Western culture,” he says.

An even trickier aspect of covering FGM is journalists’ ability to explain to the people the various forms of FGM which subject young girls to extremely torturous and highly primitive behavior. According to the US State Department Country Report of Kenya there are three types of FGM: (a) Clitoridectomy (b) Excision (c) Infibulation. The first one entails the removal of clitoral hood mainly practiced by the Kisii people; the second entails the removal of clitoris and together with labia minora (the inner vaginal lip) mainly practices by Merus and the Masais and the third one entails the removal of everything which is common among the Somalis.

Part of the problem facing Kenyan journalists and the sensitive FGM story they are not able to fully write is the fact that a number of female journalists have undergone the ritual and some of them are not quite convinced it is that diabolical!

The Traditional Women's Page

One of the biggest problems for women journalists - and the cause of lack of adequate gender sensitivity among most Kenyan journalists - has been caused, paradoxically, by the so-called women's pages which have been responsible for the subjugation of female journalists at work and the reason for chasing stories of very little benefit to women readers. Probably stories written by women journalists in Kenya and which are mostly published on women's pages are dull for historical reasons because these pages were started by female European journalists such as Liza Mackiney and Mary Hayne who wrote for European readers in 1960s and 70s.

They wrote about European fashions and trends with no African woman in mind. Though African women Editors have taken over the publications of these pages, very little seems to have changed in the content of the pages. This seems to suggest that every woman in Kenya is preoccupied with Western-oriented beauty and hair style, cookery and child-husband care. Attempts must be made to restyle the traditional women's pages both in content and positioning in newspapers so as to give women journalists and indeed male journalists who are gender sensitive an opportunity to write about more important issues concerning the rights of women in society.

In this day and age when both women and male journalists undergo the same training and have more or less the same academic qualifications, it is foolhardy to ask women journalists to write for women's pages only and write about dull subjects such as hair styles and the latest shoe fashions. May be one of the strongest arguments against women's pages is the placement of news about women's issues on these pages which hints to men that this is not their concern.

The fact that no gender battle will ever be won without changing the attitude of men does not seem to concern those who are after the continuation of present set up of separate pages for women. Female editors and reporters with the same qualifications as men are now taking a different view of women's pages and they demand that sensitive gender issues should be given as much prominence in newspaper display as any other issue concerning men.

Thirty years ago when the women's pages were being written and edited by European female journalists, African women readers had a problem of dealing with the notion that black woman was "ugly". That, I suggest, was the beginning of use of wigs by black women who, in an effort to look as European as possible, did not care how ridiculous they appeared when they wore blonde wigs which actually made them look ugly. The Press in Kenya, through women's pages played a highly significant role in the promotion and selling of the concept of the Ugliness of an African woman.

Women journalists in Kenya would be doing a great professional job if they exposed that sector of cosmetic industry in our country which is entirely dependent upon the pursuit of European beauty by black women. Certain entrepreneurs in cosmetics and "beauty products" have become millionaires as a result. Yet any serious campaign against commercial products which tend to demean the African women are likely to face very serious opposition from powerful groups of advertisers who are likely to get the backing of newspaper owners.

This is despite the fact that a number of advertisements published in Kenyan newspapers continue to expose Kenyan women to a feministic model whose psychological, physical and material characteristics are derived from Western cultural values system which attempt to imitate European women. A number of advertisements published in Kenyan newspapers depict women as sex objects and glamour girls just like those advertisement in the Western World.

One of the most respected researchers on this issue of misuse of women as advertising "baits" for a number of commodities is Margaret Gallagher who bitterly criticises this reactionary and yet insidiously flattering images which the media present of women-to themselves and to men - as sexually alluring sirens. The advertising industry in Kenya could simply not survive without the use of women as "baits" in the sale of products ranging from cosmetics to liquor and cars.

Strictly speaking, there should be no objection to the use of women, men or children in advertising but the contention comes when women's bodies are used as sex symbols and baits to sell various commodities including condoms. Most advertising in Kenya tends to exploit women in terms of their sexuality and their physical appearance. This trend has been copied from Western publications and TV programmes and has mostly been transplanted into this country unchanged. Margaret Gallagher's research on portrayal of women in various countries reveals that men always remain the centre of the women's universe.

In Brazil, for example, fictional stories on Television portray women as people who cheerfully, and without any complaints what-so-ever, sail through their domestic chores single-handed on top of a day's work outside the home. When this scenario is brought to Kenya, it ceases being fictional because it is actually a way of life for many working Kenyan women. In Britain, Gallagher discovered that apart from a handful of female politicians, the only other category of women considered newsworthy is that comprising celebrities.

The treatment of women in Britain as "hard" news involves a series of stereotypes concerning physical appearance, domestic role, marital status which portray them as perpetual dependants of men. This British example is the pattern of news selection in Kenyan newspapers, radio and Television stations. Unless a woman in Kenya is a politician or a celebrity, she cannot expect to appear on the front pages of our newspapers or make a lead story in our radio or television bulletins unless she miraculously took a trip to the moon and returned in a day.

When she is talking of the gender issue she will be lucky to make a filler in the inside pages of the newspapers or the last item of the radio or television news in this country. Gallagher tells us that women in Australia are portrayed in the media as the careful and homely housewives or sex objects or the efficient secretary and the devoted mothers. The story can hardly be said to be different in Kenya. The one country where Gallagher found gender issues being given the media coverage they deserved was in Sweden where newspapers, television and radio dealt with the relationship of women in the labour market.

She also found the media in that country being very concerned with the whole country's growing radicalism about women's work in the home and in paid employment. The media were reasonably sympathetic to the role of the housewife whose work was portrayed as hard, time consuming and responsible. The question then arises: If journalists in Sweden can overcome prejudices against women and treat gender issues as real news, why are we not able to do the same here?

Negative Media Treatment of Women

Either because of ignorance on how to deal with gender issues or because of the absence of women in important decision-making positions in the media institutions, journalism in Kenya can correctly be criticized for continued under-representation of women in the hard news columns of newspapers and news bulletins of our Radio and Television. Apart from under-representation of women in the news presentation in Kenya, there have also been noticeable ambivalent attitudes to women in the news which are evident in certain stereotyped images in which women are either "good" and "pure" or they are "bad" and "immoral".

Generally speaking this image of women comes across in stories in newspapers or even fiction in books and indeed plays shown on our TV screens. The "good" women are those who are confined in homes taking care of their families and are dependent on men while they show romantic attitudes towards their husbands. The inferior status of women in social, economic and cultural spheres comes out as accepted norms in both fictional characters and actual newsmakers. Generally speaking, women in Kenya mostly make news as wives, mothers or daughters of men already in the news.

They hardly ever make news on their own merit unless, of course, they happen to be part of the man-run or man-benefiting fashionable activities or man-benefiting entertainment business. And as has been pointed out before, the advertising that goes with these fashionable and entertainment activities are usually extremely condescending both in their tone and their unhidden manipulative intentions. The misuse of women as the "bait" through which various products are sold need not be emphasized.

The Virgin - Whore Dichotomy

Either consciously or simply by blindly obeying sociologically established cultural values, the media in Kenya, like those in many parts of the world, continues to portray women through a dichotomous motif which defines women either as good mothers who are traditional or as whores or call-girls who are modern. The virgin-whore dichotomy is more clearly noticeable in fictional portrayal of women in the electronic media in Kenya.

In this presentation, the woman is "good" if she is characterized by dependence, ineffectuality, humility and lack of initiative. But she is normally a "bad" character if she is a career lady and if she is independent and shows a bit of self-control which is not dependent on men. The most serious question which naturally follows this observation is; why do some women willingly agree to take part in plays and fictional presentations of programmes which portray them as being subordinate to men?

The answer is obviously deeply buried in the inequalities which are within our own cultures. Cultural and sometimes religious explanations are the root causes of gender inequalities and are probably the most difficult for journalists to expose and criticise. Any journalist with enough courage to criticize a religious or cultural norm which negatively defines the role of women is a crusading journalist worthy of praise. But Kenya has very few of these! Looking at gender discrimination based on culture and religion clearly makes me wonder whether a time has not come for a deliberate campaign to bring about change in some of our cultural values.

That campaign ought to be as vigorous as the present democratization movement in our society. Those expected to take the lead in such campaigns must be journalists. No gender issues can be brought up as major topics in newspapers and in the electronic media without a thorough examination of our ideologies of domesticity and motherhood. The structures of many stories about women are based on the subordinate domestic role of an African mother. The cultural roles of women in the domestic atmosphere of our society must be a subject of critical media examination. The whole political and economic structures of our entire society need to be examined to see whether they treat women fairly or equitably. Gallagher says in a world where female access to political and economic power is in most cases severely limited, their status and roles are defined within political, economic and cultural systems which tend to exclude them from effective participation. The mass media's role is primarily to reinforce definitions and identities set in a framework constructed for and by men. An overriding concern for women, therefore, should be with changes in the political and economic structure. Yet media have been observed to lag behind as an independent change agent. Even if the media in Kenya cannot be expected to initiate change, they can certainly be expected to reflect it.

Participation of Women in the Media

So far this chapter has looked at the manner in which the mass media in Kenya portray the women in general and gender issues in particular, but to do so without examining the role women journalists play and the condition of their employment as professional people would be only looking at one side of the coin. In examining the gender issues in the Kenyan mass media it is important to look at both portrayal and employment aspects of women in Kenya. If the portrayal aspect of the issue looks hopelessly bad, then that of employment can be said to be equally impoverished as the participation of women in media production is still very wanting in this country.

Apart from being numerically fewer than men, women journalists who are already in employment are experiencing an extremely difficult task in trying to climb upwards into editorship or other important positions in the editorial departments of newspapers and other media organisations. The importance of women taking part in defining "news" before journalists are given assignments has already been examined by this chapter but the sad news is that it appears as if it will be a long time before women in journalism play that pivotal role in this country.

Apart from that, the morale of women journalists is constantly being weakened by the fact that few of them have the professional independence or autonomy of writing the subjects of their choice. Many of them are forced by male editors to write about the traditional women issues of fashion, motherhood and good housekeeping. Their desire to write about the modern burning gender issues can hardly be fulfilled under these conditions. Their journalistic talents can also not be seen when they are confined to write about very limited subjects. Naturally, if any journalists continue to write about subjects of little interest to the readers, viewers and listeners they can hardly be noticed by their bosses when pay rises and promotions are being considered.

The morale of women journalists is constantly being affected by the attitude of editors towards day-to-day news decisions about what to cover and how to cover it. Women journalists are sent on uninteresting assignments because it is assumed that they cannot handle aggressive sources of news. This of course has been proved wrong locally by journalists of Catherine Gicheru's calibre and internationally by journalists like Christian Amanpour who covered the Iraqi war together with Peter Arnett though we only hear of the later as the hero of war coverage.

Because of the equality in educational background of all journalists in Kenya today and the fact that the majority of them go through the same training, it is extremely unfair to insist on giving assignments based on gender even though those assignments have nothing to do with the gender issues. The few women who were in the profession during my time as Managing Editor of the Daily Nation preferred to work for the traditional women's page and my efforts to move one whom I thought could be an excellent general reporter ended up with a resignation threat.

The selection of news under my editorship may have been based on male roles and may have ignored the role of women, while whenever they were involved, a tendency to refer to irrelevant details about their appearance, age and family status was shown. Yet not a single woman journalist complained about this tendency and I believe this was due to lack of people sensitized on gender issues both on the part of male writers of the time and female journalists in the news rooms. The reference of the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as "The Iron Lady" was common in our headlines yet no one wondered why we made no such descriptions about any male leaders. And women journalists did not raise a finger!

Be that as it may, it is extremely important for all journalists to get equal pay for equal work but without equal opportunity this call means absolutely nothing. Occupational segregation which splits assignments into "male” and "female" jobs will always work against women journalists who will be omitted from the so called "dangerous" assignments which are invariably a source of front page stories and a stepping stone to higher and more responsible positions which inevitably go with better pay.

Dual Responsibilities of Women Journalists

Most of women journalists who are also mothers combine the dual responsibility of domestic work and professional assignments. Through my carrier as a newspaper editor no man ever asked me for permission to go home to either baby-sit or to cook for children - a constant reason for women journalists' absenteeism or early retirement from office and avoidance of working late hours. The persistent attitude in our society that housework and children are women's rather than men's domain has always worked against women journalists whose chances for promotion are and will continue to be jeopardized by the fact that they cannot work late or they cannot be recalled at night to chase sensitive stories which earn their writers recognition and promotion.

Most women journalists working for the mainstream newspapers in the country are members of the Kenya Union of Journalists, yet very few of them hold any positions in the union and hence the union does not seem to fight for gender issues in the employment of journalists in the country. The percentage of women in the Kenyan Press was said by Unesco in 1981 to be five per cent. That number must now obviously have increased and the union should be even more concerned about the mistreatment of its female members if it is to be credited with being really concerned about the welfare of all its members.

With the number of women journalists increasing, there is no noticeable increase in responsible positions held by women in the mass media. Thus, it is fair to conclude that there is considerable occupational segregation against women. One notices a clear concentration of women in less prestigious jobs in both newspaper and the electronic media where women are not only less paid than men but also where there are less chances for career development and therefore less chances for promotion. A visit to any of the Kenyan media houses would reveal that jobs of telephone operators, secretaries, tea makers and translators are mostly occupied by women whereas men hold top editorial positions. Until today there are no women journalists holding top positions in the Foreign Desk, Business Department, Sub Editor's desk, Supplements Department or even Sports Departments.

It is therefore not difficult to note that there is segregation against women both horizontally where they hold most junior positions, and vertically where they hold very few top jobs. At the technical level there is a negligible number for women in the country's broadcasting, film or the print media. The reasons managers in these industries give for not promoting women is that most women cannot work long hours or night shifts. But very little consideration is given to the fact that most women working for the mass media in this country carry the dual burden of family and work responsibilities making it very difficult for them to compete with men who have the freedom to work the hours they are assigned to or travel whenever they are demanded to by their assignments.

The only panacea to this serious professional imbalance for women journalists seems to be a demand for a legislation which would protect their rights as mothers and which would make sure there was real equal pay for equal work. May be those concerned with gender issues in journalism should be thinking about the introduction of an Equal Pay Act along with a Sex Discrimination Act. Looking at what legal action has done for women journalists in the Western World may encourage feminists to start thinking about taking the whole matter to court to fight for women's rights. Sex discrimination proceedings have been fought and won against such companies as Reuters in the UK; NBC, Newsday, Newsweek and the Washington Post in the United States.

The New York Times has avoided going to court by making compensatory payments out of court and by promising to speed up the promotion of women. Kenyan media industries should also be forced to consider the introduction of an Affirmative Action in favour of women journalists, but my fear is that these demands cannot be expected to be made by the male-dominated Kenya Union of Journalists. May be the only other solution is to seriously look into the possibilities of professionalisation of Journalism in Kenya. This would make sure all professionals, both male and female, are treated equally by employers.