Women Journalists: Challenges and Limitations

Women-Journalists-Challenges-and-Limitations

Women in journalism face various challenges and situations such as sexual violence and verbal abuse

Journalism has traditionally been a male-only field, but more women in journalism are now pursuing it.  Some journalists have opted to concentrate on investigative reporting, covering topics like corruption, human rights violations, and other taboo topics in their community. They face physical aggression, verbal abuse, threats, and even murder as a result of their reporting, just like their male co-workers. But since they are women, the harassment frequently takes particular, gender-based forms, including sexual slander, sexual violence, and threats against their families.

The conventional structures of journalism include a large number of young female journalists, but there is still no obvious path for promotion, the same problems persist that have been addressed for more than a decade, ever since equal employment rights became a legislative reality. There are many young women working in the traditional structures of journalism, but there is still no obvious path to their advancement. These are the same problems that have been debated for more than a generation, ever since equal employment rights became a political reality.

Although many remarkable people have accomplished great things, society has not changed as a result. Although there is a propensity to believe that the case has been won, the actual data reveals a strong opposition to change in many Western nations, including in the public-service media.

In our society, gender discrimination is an important issue. This issue is getting worse every day in our society, which is a major barrier for underdeveloped countries. Due to both internal and external gender discrimination, female journalists are unable to uphold their own inventions. If there is gender inequality within half part of countries like India, a country can never be called developed.

Only if we thoroughly examine the issue and potential solutions for female journalists, society will undoubtedly benefit. This product will be available today, tomorrow, or in generations to come, and gender prejudice will never again exist in society.

Online harassment has become a particularly prevalent new type of abuse. The majority of female journalists have encountered internet harassment, particularly after writing on sensitive subjects. Sexual harassment is frequently used to suppress female journalists and is of a sexual nature.

When writing about delicate subjects, women experience disproportionately high levels of backlash. According to reports from Malaysia, female journalists face waves of harassment and intimidation online based on their gender, particularly when covering topics related to women’s rights, such as teenage pregnancies, forced or child marriages, female genital mutilation, sexual harassment, rape culture, and transgender-women and trans-rights.

In the same way, topics like the rights of refugees, migrant workers, and indigenous peoples to their land fall under the category of religious and marginalized issues.

Offline harassment against female journalists, including verbal and physical abuse, is common. It is noteworthy that male colleagues are primarily responsible for the offline harassment that affects female journalists. Verbal abuse is a prevalent kind of harassment. In the Philippines, comments with sexual overtones, improper jokes, including body shaming, and personal inquiries are directed at women journalists.

In Nepal, too, unpleasant remarks concerning the appearance of women journalists are common (hair, face, and bodies). Additionally, in both situations, men’s attempts to touch these women might sometimes make these remarks worse. Again, in the context of Nepal, this is made worse by the fact that women typically are unable to drive and are consequently reliant on men.

The lack of legislation and regulatory frameworks necessary to achieve gender equality is a significant barrier to attaining gender justice. The absence of national regulatory and legislative frameworks as well as internal procedures within newsrooms intended to combat gender-based discrimination against female journalists.

Within newsrooms, there are still few internal gender rules that encourage women to rise to leadership roles. In Nepal to promote female journalists to positions of leadership and authority. Even female journalists quit their jobs as a result of it. Another major problem is the absence of laws that guarantee the security of women.

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Rahul Tanikanti