A pioneer's dream remains unfulfilled

One of my earliest memories of my grandmother's house is that of her bookshelves stacked with copies of Begum magazine. At eight or ten years old, all I knew was that it was a magazine about women, published by a woman. It was only after I grew up, ventured into journalism myself, and, some years later, met its editor in an interview she gave to the Star magazine in 2005, that I realised what exactly that meant.   

"Nuri", as she was called in childhood, had been exposed to books and magazines from an early age. Her schooling at Begum Rokeya's Sakhawat Memorial School where she learnt everything from singing, dancing and acting, to cooking, sewing and sports, lay the foundation for her success in life. In 1946, she graduated from Lady Brabourne College, having completed her Bachelors in ethics, philosophy and history. She was very culturally active, performing in and directing plays, but all within the walls of her school and college, for it was a time when Muslim women hardly stepped out of their homes, let alone perform in public.

That was the context in which Begum magazine was first published, just before the Partition of 1947. Nurjahan Begum took over from its first editor, poet Sufia Kamal, a few months later. It was far from easy. There were issues with printing, with transporting the staff during the communal riots. Women writers were few and far between and women photographers even more rare. Yet, Begum was published every week, first from Kolkata and later from Dhaka.

Today, women are not rare in the news media. In fact, they are the face of many television channels in Bangladesh, as news anchors and talk show hosts. Women reporters in both the electronic and print media have also made a name for themselves. Yet, despite the visibility of women in the news, just what role are they actually playing on and off screen?

The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) has, every five years since 1995, studied women's presence in relation to men, gender bias and stereotyping in news media content. The GMMP 2015 study found that only 37 percent of stories in newspapers, television and radio newscasts were reported by women and that women made up only 24 percent of the persons heard, read about or seen in newspaper, television or radio news. The gap is widest in news about politics and the government where women are only 16 percent of the people in the stories. This relative invisibility of women in the traditional news media has even crossed over to online digital platforms where women make up only 26 percent of the people in internet news stories and media news tweets.

For Bangladesh, the numbers are even lower. Whereas the number of women presenters on radio and television respectively has increased from 33 percent and 36 percent in 2010 to 67 percent and 66 percent in 2015, the number of women reporters remains the same at a low 8 percent. The number of women cited as sources, as professionals and in terms of their participation in economic life is very low. Portrayal of women as helpless victims remains high as in previous years.

According to the Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media 2011, women's representation in Bangladeshi media is highest at the top, at the governance level, where women are 26.8 percent, and 'troublingly low' at a ratio of 5:1 men to women across occupational levels for the 11 companies surveyed. This has been attributed across several studies to a number of factors, including significant levels of gender-based discrimination and censorship of women journalists. In terms of salary, women on average earn less than their male counterparts. With regards to company policy, women journalists have cited a number of factors which, if implemented at the policy level, could aid them in their duties, including wage equity, paid maternity leave and benefits, child care support, flexible work arrangements during pregnancy, freedom from gender discrimination and sexual harassment, and a gender-friendly work environment overall. In addition, facilities as simple as office transport could aid women in overcoming actual obstacles of security which may currently be preventing them from travelling long distances or working late nights – factors which are often mentioned in relation to women's efficiency at the workplace. The fact that journalists in the electronic media are accompanied by a crew including a vehicle is one reason for women's more secure status and thus more ambitious pursuits on television, unlike in the print media where reporters are basically on their own.   

The gender ratio of news reporters is important because, as the GMMP report has shown, 14 percent of stories by female reporters focus centrally on women, in contrast to 9 percent of stories by their male counterparts.The fact that women account for less than one-fifth of staff at all levels except governance, is reflected in the generally gender biased reporting in the Bangladeshi news media. Women have little voice, not only in deciding what will make the news, but also in how it will be written or photographed or filmed and, finally, presented. Thus, not only is women-related news largely absent from the main newspaper in general, and the front pages in particular, but that which exists, often employs gender insensitive language and imagery.

Bangladesh is a signatory to international conventions such as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, Section J of which spells out two strategic objectives in regard to women and the media that are aimed at promoting women's empowerment and development: increasing the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication; and promoting a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media. Bangladesh, in its National Women Development Policy 2011, addresses these concerns. It contains a number of provisions on media content and the accurate portrayal of women in the media, including the removal of discrimination against women's participation in the media; the creation of equal opportunities for the training of women at the management and programme levels; and the integration of a gender perspective in media policy. The media industry, however, is yet to implement these provisions, whereas a comprehensive gender sensitive media policy has been the demand of media activists and women's rights groups for years now.

Twelve years ago, Nurjahan Begum expressed – along with praise for contemporary women journalists – her concerns, viewing the lack of security of women and restrictions on their freedom as "a conspiracy to hold them back". Nurjahan Begum, journalist, activist, social worker, accomplished in the mid-20th century what is still impossible for some and a challenge for many women in 21st century Bangladesh. While she is labelled a trailblazer for Bangladeshi women journalists, how far we have been able to traverse the path that she forged 70 years ago remains questionable. She acknowledged that it wasn't easy, that there will always be problems – religious conflict, social bindings, people trying to hold us back – but she also firmly believed that despite all these, the only way to move was forward. That is something we must never lose sight of.

The writer is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, University of Dhaka.