From
Practices with Potential to Good Practices in promoting gender equality in the
area of Women and the Media – Consultation meeting
Experience
Exchange in the context of EIGE’s Study
Collection
of methods, tools and good practices in the field of women and the media (as
described by area J of Beijing platform for action) in the EU 27 Member States
and Croatia
16/17
January 2013
Artis
Hotel - Liejyklos str. 11/23 Vilnius, Lithuania
Description
of criteria and of their application
The operational process undertaken to identify 10 examples of good
practice in the field of women and the media entails different steps that range
from assessing against general criteria of good design and efficiency –
related to the specific practice being considered – to
criteria directly connected with the field of women and the media and, more
specifically, directly connected to the notions of “access and participation to
expression” and of “access to and participation in decision-making” that are at
the core of this project.
Three
different sets of criteria have been developed, corresponding to the three
steps of the evaluation process. The 1st and the 2nd sets
of criteria are used to identify 20 practices with potential (based on
collection of methods and tools from questionnaires); the 3rd set of
criteria are meant to be used in the consultation process leading up to the
selection of the final 10 examples of good practice. This last set of criteria
has been drawn up considering the criteria/elements specific to each of the
intervention's relevant fields: monitoring of access and participation of women
to expression; monitoring of access and participation of women to
decision-making; self-regulation; gender training and; awareness raising
initiatives.
1st set of criteria
Basic
elements for defining a practice with potential
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works
well
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transferable
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learning
potential
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embedded
within wider gender main-streaming strategy
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The 1st set of criteria are basic elements which, according to EIGE
methodology, should be present so that a practice can be considered as a
'promising practice' or a 'practice with potential'. These are as follows:
The first two criteria – works well and transferability – are general
good-design and efficiency criteria . In particular, in the the assessment of
the practices' efficacy, the criteria works well, focuses on:
·
Relevance: objectives are consistent
with beneficiaries’ gender-equality needs and priorities
·
Efficiency: the minimum necessary amount
of resources/inputs(funds, expertise, time, etc.) are used to produce results
·
Effectiveness: gender equality
objectives initially set for the intervention have been achieved and intended
beneficiaries are able to take advantage of the changes
·
Impact: it can be demonstrated that a
significant increase in gender equality took place
·
Sustainability: both regarding the
intervention's continuation and the permanence of the results it has produced
after the end of the initiative
The third criterion, learning potential highlights the importance of
the practice's potentiality to be used as learning tool that may capacity build
stakeholders.
The last criterion: emphasises the importance that a practice can be
embedded in a wider gender main-streaming strategy and that can guarantee a
structured approach and continuity over time and possibly attract financing.
2nd set of criteria
Women’s
participation and access to expression and decision making specific criteria
common
for all practices with potential
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1.
Approach centred on the
role of women in the social construction of reality
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2.
Clear, appropriate,
comprehensive definition of women’s access and participation to expression in
and through the media
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3.
Enables women to access prestigious roles in
and through the media
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4.
Enables women to access all the
professional roles involved in media production
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5.
Increases women’s chances of having a voice
in all the thematic domains covered by media
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6.
Contrasts women’s segregation in the
thematic domains considered to be for women’s interest/expertise only
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7.
Increases women’s chances of having a voice
in all the media products
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8.
Clear, appropriate,
comprehensive definition of women’s access and participation to
decision-making within media organisations
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9.
Promotes balanced
participation of women in decision-making within media organisations
(understood as access to top level positions and to the highest editorial
positions, entitled with responsibility and agency in media policy making and
production)
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10.
Increases the attention given to women’s
social, economic and cultural issues
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11.
Promotes the creation of women’s formal or
informal networks
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12.
Promotes work/life balance
and worker’s well-being
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13.
Promotes women’s careers within media
organisations at any level
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14.
Ensuring gender equality by promoting the
transparent organisation of work, based on clearly-defined and shared
criteria in evaluation and tasks management
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15.
Acknowledges and contrasting forms of
multiple discrimination that intersect gender discrimination
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The 2nd set of criteria encompasses criteria that are meant
to integrate those of the 1st set by focusing on the specific field
of women and the media. In particular, following our understanding of the
assignment, these criteria have been elaborated in order to assess whether a
method/tool – regardless of specific area of intervention it falls under - has
a potential to promote women’s
participation and access to expression and decision-making in and through
media.
The overall approach underpinning the elaboration of the 2nd
set of criteria was cantered on the role of women in the social construction of
reality; such an approach is clearly formulated in Criterion n. 1: the background requisite for a method/tool to be
considered a ‘practice with potential’ is the contribution it gives to
enhancing the role of women in mediated representation, interpretation and
analysis of reality. A practice with potential, according to this criterion,
enables women to express their voice about current issues and about issues of
collective interest; it enables women’s access to the media products that are
more relevant in providing pictures of the world, shaping common knowledge and
influencing public opinion. Reference here is mostly to ‘factual genres’ (news
genres/formats, forms of documentary and current affairs productions) but
fictional genres representing social reality and addressing the problems of
everyday life are considered relevant as well.
According to the Criterion n. 2,
in order to consider a method/tool as a practice with potential it has to be
grounded in a clear definition of ‘expression’ that, in our view, means
‘creation of meaning’, ‘expression of one’s personal voice/opinion’,
‘expression of one’s personal expertise and intellectual skills’. The two
dimensions of ‘expression’ that are important in this context are: a)
expression ‘in’ media: participation of women in the creation of media
products; b) expression ‘through’ the media: the weight of women’s voices
within media content. Practices with
potential, in our view, increase women’s access to production and/or to content
in all types of media products, in all types of thematic domains/subjects, and
in all the professional roles.
Criterion n. 3. A
practice with potential enables women to obtain roles enhancing their
opinion-leadership, competence and intellectual skills in a plurality of areas.
It increases women’s access to roles, in and through the media, enabling them
to express their voice and view-point on a plurality of subjects/topics. Focus
here is on anchors, journalist, reporters, experts; women quoted as primary
source in news and media contents.
Criterion n. 4. The
practice increases access of women to all the roles involved in media
production, with particular reference to those enabling to express one’s voice,
creative and interpretative skills or technical competences. Focus here is on:
anchors, journalists, reporters, text writers, screenplay writers, dialogues
writers, responsible for TV and radio grids, camera operators, video editing
operators, photographers, video makers, schedules-makers, etc.
Criterion n. 5. It is
important that women’s access to expression, in and through the media, is
defined with regard to a wide array of topics, and particularly with regard to:
current issues and the public sphere issues, the subjects of ‘hard news’
(politics, economics, business, international affairs, current affairs), the
domains of expertise that are traditionally male-dominated (science,
technology, philosophy, social criticism), the ‘high culture’ domains (‘high’
literature, essay cinema, etc.)
Criterion n. 6.
Preventing segregation, in and through the media, of women’s voices and
expertise in the private sphere issues (child bearing, family and interpersonal
relationships), in ‘soft’ stories (arts, lifestyle, celebrity, etc.), in ‘pink
issues’ (fashion, body, interior design, housekeeping, women’s cultural
production) is key to women’s access to expression
Criterion n. 7. The practice increases women’s access to expression in and through
all the media products, with particular reference to those committed to provide
pictures of the world that are relevant to shaping public opinion (news
genres/formats, ranging from infotainment to ‘high quality’ journalism; factual
entertainment and fictional products that represent different aspects of the
contemporary world and everyday life; political and social satire).
Criterion n. 8 needs a
more detailed explanation, as it concern decision-making. As in the case of
‘access and participation to expression’, we believe that any practice with
potential needs to be grounded in a clear definition of ‘decision-making’, here
this is to be understood to be access to top level positions (e. g. general
managers, chief executive officers, heads of human resources) and high
editorial positions, entitled with responsibility in media policy making and
production. Such position are particularly relevant because, with regard to
news making, they put into practice the ‘gate-keeping’ and ‘agenda-setting’
functions of the media (their power to set the priority issues/topics in the
public debate); more generally, those roles entitled to decide which social
phenomena, actors and (power) relations will be ‘visible’ and which will not.
Criterion n. 9 specifies
the professional roles endowed with decision-making power: general managers,
chief executive officers, heads of human resources. A good practice promotes
women’s access to the highest editorial positions. For broadcast media, these
are the following: producers, executive producers, channel editor, deputy
editor (in public broadcasting only), responsible for a section/genre, such as
news, entertainment, etc.; responsible for programming; program director (for
radio), broadcast programming manager (for TV); for print media: editor, editor
in chief, deputy editor; for on line media: editor in chief, deputy editor.
Criterion n. 10 is
more general, aiming at verifying whether the tool/method is capable of
increasing the attention given to
women’s social, economic and cultural issues. A good practice should aim to
‘make room’ for these issues in the vast array of media products and genres.
Good practice promotes the expression of a gendered perspective in addressing
the vast array of topics. Good practice encourages the constitution of new
‘spaces’ dedicated to these issues (radio and TV programs, newspapers pages,
blogs, etc.).
An important specification concerns the application of criteria 1-10 in
the selection of practices with potential: within the context of media work organisation and contents,
‘access and participation to expression’ and ‘access and participation to
decision-making’ two very different aspects could be identified. It can be
argued that a practice that increases the number of women in decision-making
bodies within media organisations – for instance, a code of conduct or another
self-regulation tool - is also a
practice that increases women’s access to expression in and/or through the
media; yet the opposite is not automatically true: a practice that has proved
to have a positive impact, for example, on the number of women featuring as
reporters in TV news broadcasts does not
have any impact, per se, on
decision-making as well, as reporters are not professional figures endowed with
decision-making power. For these reasons, whereas a method/tool pertinent to
the decision-making dimension was expected to satisfy many of the criteria 1 to
10, a method/tool related to the dimension of ‘expression’ was expected to
satisfy criteria 1 to 7 plus criterion 10.
Finally, criteria 11-15 are
important features of a practice with potential, but we did not necessarily
expect them to be present in all practices, as they identify gender equality
issues that are not only specific to the organisation of work within media
industries.
Criterion n. 11. It is
important that through the practices the creation of women’s networks,
mentoring, and overseeing committees is encouraged.
Criterion n. 12. Any
practice approach and strategy should aim to create favourable conditions for
workers, independently of their gender, as well as an inclusive working
environment.
Criterion n. 13. Any
practice approach and strategy should have as a clearly-stated and explicit
goal to promote women’s career opportunities within media organisations.
Criterion n. 14. Any practice approach and strategy
which contrasts tacit forms of discrimination, in promotion and in tasks
assignment, based on gender, race, sexual orientation and other personal
conditions. A good practice contrasts promotions and tasks management based on
personal preferences/prejudices. Women’s chances to experience gender
discrimination are increased by the non transparent organisation of work.
Criterion n. 15. Any practice approach and strategy
which attempts to favour those who are the object of multiple discrimination
based on their gender, race, sexual orientation and other personal conditions
(e. g. migrant women, lesbian women, women with a disability).
3rd set of
criteria
Practices with potential specific elements for the field of
intervention
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Monitoring
of access of women to expression
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Monitoring
of access of women to decision making
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Self-regulation
for
gender equality
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Gender
training
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Awareness
raising
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Clear definition of the monitoring purposes
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Clear definition of the monitoring purposes
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Self-regulation tools intended to increase women’s access to roles
enhancing their intellectual skills and competences
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Clear definition of gender
training purposes
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Clear definition of
awareness-raising goal(s)
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Monitoring grounded in a clear definition of ‘access to expression’
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Monitoring grounded in a clear definition of ‘access to
decision-making’
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Self-regulation tools
intended to give women a voice in the
media products that are more relevant in public-opinion shaping
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Well-developed strategy
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Clearly defined target
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Monitoring conducted on a regular basis
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Monitoring conducted on a regular basis
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Self-regulation tools
intended to promote women's participation in media production process at any
level
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Well-designed agenda
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Clear message
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Dissemination of monitoring results
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Dissemination of monitoring results
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Self-regulation tools
intended to promote access of women to decision-making in media
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Addressing real problems
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Cantered on women’s expertise and skills
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Monitoring conducted
using a clearly-defined and consistent methodological approach
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Monitoring conducted using a clearly-defined and consistent
methodological approach
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Self-regulation tools
aiming to promote a transparent organisation of work, based on
clearly-defined and shared criteria in promotion and tasks management
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Not holding women responsible
for discrimination
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Well disseminated
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Involvement of gender
experts and media experts in monitoring
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Involvement of gender experts and media experts in monitoring
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Stable, long-lasting
nature of self-regulation tools adopted to redress gender imbalances. Strong
basis in women and the media issues
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‘Gender and the media’
specific content
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Addressing gender
imbalance as a community problem
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Strong basis in women and
the media issues
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Gender skills and
expertise of trainers
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Lastly, the 3rd set of criteria are intended to be used in
the consultation process leading to the selection of the 10 examples of good
practice. This last set of criteria has been drawn up taking into consideration
the criteria/elements specific to each relevant intervention field: monitoring
of access and participation of women to expression; monitoring of access and
participation of women to decision-making; self-regulation, gender training
and; awareness raising initiatives. The criteria of each intervention field have
been developed balancing the need for overall requisites (e.g., well-developed
strategy, clear definition of target and message) with the specific requisites
coming from women and the media sector.
