Women deserve an even chance in media leadership

The issue of women in top media leadership has attracted considerable scholarly attention in the past couple of years. More recently, in observation of International Women’s Day this week, we saw a couple of reports speaking to the issue of women in top media leadership.

One such study, conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, sought to understand ‘Women and leadership in the news media in 2023’.

Gathering evidence from a strategic sample of 240 major news outlets in 12 markets across five continents, the study found that women are still significantly underrepresented in top editorial leadership positions.

Out of the 180 top editors in the 240 major news outlets, only 22 per cent were women, a minor improvement from last year’s 21 per cent. It gets worse in the African markets, specifically South Africa and Kenya.

 The study found that women made up 20 per cent of top editorial leadership in the sampled news outlets in South Africa, a significant drop from 60 per cent in 2021 and 41 per cent in 2022. In Kenya, women made up 13 per cent of the top editorial leadership in the outlets sampled, a drop by half from 27 per cent in 2021.

Granted, the industry has experienced significant turnover in recent years owing to the pandemic and the enduring economic decline of the industry. It goes without saying that the recent layoffs have affected both female and male editorial leaders.

However, we must not use the recent challenges as a scapegoat to cover up the stubborn facts; women, despite joining the media in droves at entry-level positions, still remain grossly marginalised where and when it matters most.

Overadvised and overcoached

Many observers — including myself — have previously advocated for the mentorship of women in the media to prepare them for leadership. However, after deep introspection and reflection, I come to the realisation that women in the media do not need mentorship. In fact, most women in the media are overmentored, overadvised and overcoached.

What they truly need — what Kenyan media truly needs — is radical change that creates an environment that gives women an equal shot to leadership opportunities.

We need a completely different thinking of who should lead media at editorial and corporate level. We need to stop thinking of women leaders as a token or as a ‘gender diversity’ checkbox, because that is setting them up for failure. If they are appointed solely on the basis of their gender, they are bound to fail because even if they are truly good at their job, they will always be viewed as the gender token appointee.

The only way to close this gap is to make sure that women have an equal chance to be at the table and must be respected as leaders in their own right, their gender notwithstanding. This means disabusing stereotypes and biases about women leadership and viewing that woman at the table not as a female editor or female executive, but as a competent editor, leader, executive — period.

Dr Chege is a media, innovation and technology researcher; [email protected]