Full multimedia story www.vanesamedia.wordpress.com/2018/06/21/gender-inequality-still-a-hurdle-in-the-rwandan-media 

As women in Rwanda continue to prosper in the fields of politics and economics, there remains a challenge in increasing female involvement and participation in the media. Maria Nakacwa explores the gender imbalance in Rwanda media and how the women are struggling to cope in the field.

Majority of high-profile positions in Rwanda media are dominated by males, which has left females and reduced their voices. Although there have been considerable changes in the prospects for women working in the media in the past few years, women are still the minority in the top journalistic work despite making the biggest journalism student  numbers. There are fewer female practicing journalists in different media outlets in all the main media platforms that exist in Rwanda.

“We have many women in journalism classes but few end up in the newsrooms because they are afraid of exposure. Also, media managers do not believe in female journalists because they think that they are vulnerable and they make them think that they are not capable,” said Egide Ingabire Bibio, a news anchor and producer at Rwanda Television in an interview with Sunday Magazine. 

According to Joseph Njuguna, the Dean of School of Journalism, University of Rwanda, females enroll in the university to pursue journalism but a few really pursue it.

“A third of the students who enroll and show passion in journalism are female, but later after campus they end up going for less aggressive jobs like public relations or marketing. Of recent, the number of students is promising and we intend to teach them the best journalism,” Njuguna says.

The working environment is reported to be discouraging the female journalists. The International Women’s Media Foundation, a global organization formed to support women journalists as champions of press freedom reports that many female journalists are assaulted, threatened and defamed for pursuing the truth. The foundation also reports sexual harassment as well as online attacks.

Maggie Mutesi, a news anchor and television presenter on Rwanda Television says women are under-looked in many ways especially in news rooms where they are assigned to softer assignments and dictated to on how and when to do them.

Mutesi video interview

Gender inequality in media outlets seems to be a more difficult problem to eradicate as many female journalists continue to complain that if it wasn’t for their passion for journalism and commitment, many would have dropped for fear of exposure and being harassed.

“People have this perception that women can’t be as good at sports reporting like men, and this blocked opportunities for us. I remember a time when I was denied a chance to commentate because of my gender,” Ariane Uwamahoro, a sports journalist with Rwanda is quoted to have told the New Times Rwanda.

Dr. Margaret Jjuuko, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Journalism and Communication, University of Rwanda, says there are personal challenges that limit females to practice in media houses especially cultural beliefs and mindsets.

“Cultural barriers do not allow them to compete favorably with boys – they are always shy and hide behind boys to execute certain tasks. This is changing since we are encouraging the girls to do journalism, mindset change on the potential of women and encouraging female students to pursue journalism,” says Dr. Jjuuko.

Dr. Jjuuko says many females don’t want to do “tough” jobs because they are sometimes lazy. Most of them want to stay in their comfort zones. “I always try my best to push my female students,” Dr Jjuuko says.

Her concern is that even with these efforts, female journalists that have the potential are not assigned hard topics like politics, and that there is a general lack of understanding notions related to gender.

Even though many say the environment may not be that good for the female journalists, other people continue to believe that the situation can be improved by the females themselves if they put courage and determination. Athan Tashobya, a male journalist at the New Times believes that it is personal determination that can help any journalist to prosper not because of their gender.

”The success in Journalism career largely depends on how one is passionate about it despite the small pay and the likely challenges in the field which call for the heart-hardened.   We are to see a big number of women who are ready to choose passion over fortunes. But still we have a couple of successful female journalists too,” says Tashobya. 

Rwanda shines among the best countries with the highest numbers of female participation in sectors like economy, educational achievements, health and political involvement. The World Economic Forum in its Global Gender Gap Report of 2017 ranked Rwanda in the fourth position for the degree of women’s participation, even outshining America in the 49^th position.

Organisations have been made to help female journalists in both their working environment and outside the work place. Among these are Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) through conducting competitions in the female category. Many female journalists have participated and won awards in the Development Journalism Awards. Marie Louise Uwizeyimana was the first female journalist to win the award of journalist of the year in 2013 and Egide Ingabire Bibio won the best TV anchor at the Development Journalism Awards 2017.

The Rwanda Female Journalists Association (ARFEM) currently headed by Egide Ingabire Bibio is an association that brings together female journalists to increase their voice and participation in the media through training. Last year, ARFEM with support from UNESCO conducted a training of 70 female journalists, with a view to empowering the female journalists through a series of capacity building interventions.

Fojo Media Institute of Sweden is helping through developing a curriculum in Gender and the Media is using workshops to develop capacity amongst the female journalists.

Dr. Jjuuko says that gender mainstreaming in Journalism schools and in newsrooms should be key, as well as sensitization of media managers to encourage females and give them equal opportunities like males in the field.

“The issues related to gender should not only be handled by women in newsrooms. For example, in some newsrooms, women are assigned cooking programmes yet even men can do it, perhaps even better than women. We need a sensitization strategy amongst journalists. When the concept of gender is mentioned, we are not only talking about women but issues to do with equality,” concludes Dr Jjuuko.