Gender in the Myanmar Media Landscape

"To change the existing gender roles, the media itself must mirror gender equity within the media institutions, both in policy and practice. A professional media that respects gender equity, promotes liberal values and a plural society can positively contribute to a country in transition like Myanmar and help shape its future."

Conducted by Fojo Media Institute with International Media Support (IMS) and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency support, this report seeks to illuminate the general status of the Myanmar media industry from a gender perspective, to identify minimum standards to protect and promote gender equality within the industry, and to provide practical recommendations that could enhance gender understanding among media practitioners. The data gathered through this survey and the analyses are expected to be used in strategising the educational programme of the newly established Myanmar Journalism Institute (MJI) as well as to inform the media industry at large.

As noted here, Myanmar is a country undergoing rapid socio-political transition. Myanmar's media industry currently reflects some of the broader changes taking place in the country since 2010, including the changing role of women. The print, broadcast, and online media have suffered strict censorship following the 1962 military coup, and Myanmar's freedom of speech and press have suffered long years of control. In 2014, the World Press Freedom Index of Reporters without Borders ranked Myanmar 145th out of 178 countries assessed, with the ranking reflecting an improved status, following changes introduced to the media sector. According to government records, in 2014, there were 2,000 accredited journalists in Myanmar, 60% of them women.

Based on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO's model curriculum for journalism education, the study was undertaken acknowledging media's essential role in the promotion of equity in the Myanmar society. The research effort included 148 respondents, including 121 survey respondents (69 women and 52 men). The first phase of the survey, from September to November 2014, was limited to Yangon. The participation of 90 Yangon-based journalists, 68 of them women and 22 of them men, reflects the country as a whole, with the media industry being largely Yangon-centred. During the second phase, questionnaires were distributed in identified locations in Mandalay, Mon, Karen, Bago, and Magay, deriving responses from 31 respondents.

The Yangon-based media industry indicated a strong female representationin terms of numbers; women made up over 50% of staff on average. Fifty-four percent of the respondents felt there was adequate women's representation in the media houses, but despite a few high-flying women media executives, the majority of the women held low-ranking positions, with limited ability to influence context. The male domination of media institutions in the realm of decision making results in 2 main challenges for women within the industry: a lack of opportunity to advance their careers and an absence of institutional mechanisms supportive of female media workers. In media organisations where women do have a strong say and are included in decision-making mechanisms, those decisions appeared to be more relevant to beats that are generally considered "soft" or sections/segments that are dedicated to women readers/audiences. The portrayal of women in the media appeared to reinforce stereotypes, even when women were in charge of content generation. The content appeared to often promote the concept of women as family figures/homemakers or as victims, thus reinforcing women's traditional roles and stereotypes, while failing to capture the diverse roles they play and are able to play in the evolving Myanmar society. These issues are compounded by a patriarchal culture that accords women a lower position in society, creating additional barriers for women.

Less than 13% of the respondents had received gender training, according to the findings, while only 8% of the journalists said they have received safety training. Women participants expressed keenness to advance their careers, including undergoing training, in addition to a strong wish to go beyond loose networks to building strong organisations that are led by women. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents called for the introduction of gender policies to media institutions to promote equity in the workplace, and where they exist, to further strengthen those policies. Eighty percent of the respondents felt that women should not merely be members in media organisations but should form a trade union exclusively for women media workers to address many issues that remain unaddressed. Women also felt that existing unions were focused on issues such as threats, arrests, and assaults of journalists with no focus on policy and specially, issues concerning gender. Both men and women considered regular and systematic media monitoring and analysis of gender representation in the media to be vital for Myanmar media and felt there should be gender training for both men and women, but including more men to foster gender-sensitive newsrooms. There was a broad support voiced by participants for the following: targeted advocacy to media owners to support post-childbirth re-entry for women; incorporation of gender in journalism curricula of universities and other media training institutes; consistent and targeted awareness creation on the rights of women journalists including entitlements; introduction of mechanisms within media organisations to deal with complaints and redress; and finally, the creation of in-house gender committees.

The report concludes with a list of 20 recommendations based on these findings, such as: Follow up on the National Strategic Plan for the Advancement of Women (2013-2022) to develop recommendations and activity plans related to media; incorporate gender in journalism curricula of universities and other media organisations involved in media capacity building; look deeper into gender representation in media content and form an action plan for how media can better mirror society in terms of actual representation; and promote security measures so that women can take on challenging beats and assignments without restrictions.