Struggle for Gender

Equality in the
Newsrooms
The Case of Lebanon
 Context: Contradictions
 Progressive environment
 Conducive to gender equality
 Self-censorship more than official censorship
 Freedom of the press and expression are guaranteed by the Constitution
 Legal access to all occupations
 Confessional sectarian political system
 Conservative patriarchal social values
 Increasing dialogue on gender equality
 Trends
 Women’s underrepresentation in :
 A) Positions of power.
 B) The news industry.

 Source:

 Byerly, C.M. (2011) Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media
(Washington, DC: International Women’s Media Foundation).
 Ratio of Employment
 Exceeds 2:1 male to female in Lebanese news industry.
 Contrasts with ratio of access to education 1:1.2 male to
female and 4:1 female to male in journalism programs.
 Equal job security.
 Occupational roles by gender in Lebanon
Occupational #men %men #women %women
level
Governance 23 85.2 4 14.8
Top-level mngt 25 78.1 7 21.9
Senior 25 71.4 10 28.6
Middle 27 64.3 15 35.7
Senior level 113 57.1 85 42.9
professional

Junior-level 124 61.1 79 38.9

Production and 53 67.1 26 32.9
design

Tech. professional 143 100 0 0

Sales, finance, 22 51.2 21 48.8

admin

Other 9 75 3 25
Total number and 564 71 250 29
average
 Issues of Sexual Harassment and
Gender Discrimination
 No criminalization according to Lebanese Penal Code.
 Overlooked taboos
 Protection in libel and defamation code.
 Lack of newsroom policies and absence of national
legislation.
 Lack of education on these issues in schools.
 Attempts to publicize incidents of sexual harassment.
 http://www.goodnesstv.org/fr/videos/voir/48249/1/
 www.theadventuresofsalwa.com
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHAtZkJUSFE
 https://www.facebook.com/nasawiya/posts/198254310234836
Visual but unseen discrimination
Codes of beauty = Erasure of age
 Symbolization vs.
Representation
 Represent: speak for one-self
 Symbolize: Reflecting a meaning based on a hegemonic social
consensus, usually imposed.
 The case of May Shidiac:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dDgppxUIGQ


 Conditions of Work
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzgvZ6Yxfrk
 http://fawesome.ifood.tv/news/10045377-lebanese-tv-host-st
ands-up-to-sexist-sheikh
 Scenarios
 May Chidiac
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LKgqNqsbUU
 Journalists and the Newsrooms: questioning
access, participation, and outcome.
 Journalists are social commentators
 Relay facts according to particular context and particular
interpretations
 Journalism, while claiming objectivity, is not value free.
 Not only in regards to content but also in regards to the channels
through which the info is presented…
 Here we mean the human medium
 As such, the individual is framed and subject to the value system of
the industry, society, culture, nature etc….
 Female journalists are no exception;
 Added burden of gender and its representation.
 It is fair to say that freedom of speech, on one level, signifies power
through self-expression.
 To take away self expression, one takes away the human faculty of
communication.
 Self- expression is essential in the public sphere for the
representation of the individual.
 Public spheres contribute to the rise of civil society.
 Civil society puts authority in check.
 Public sphere and civil society are essential components to
measure democracy.
 All these processes need an environment where communication
can happen on an equal level.
 Complimentary Bibliography

Byerly, C.M. (2011) Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media. Washington, DC: International Women’s
Media Foundation.
 Fraser, N. Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy. Social Text, No. 25/26
(1990), pp. 56-80
 Habermas, Jürgen. Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1998.
 -----The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry Into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Trans. Thomas
Burger. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989.
 Karidy, M. (2010) Reality television and Arab Politics: Contention in Public Life. USA: Cambridge University Press.
 Makdisi, S., KiwanF., and Marktanner, M. (2010) “Lebanon: The Constrained Democracy and Its national Impact’. In I.
Elbadawi and S. Makdisi (eds) Democracy in the Arab World: explaining the Deficit. New York: Routledge, pp:115-141.
 Raicheva-Stover, M and Ibroscheva, E. (eds) (2014). Women in Politics and Media: perspectives from nations in Transition.
USA and UK: Blommsbury Publishing Inc.
 Ross, K. (2001) “Women at Work: Journalism as an En-gendered Process’. Journalism Studies, 2(4):531-544.
 Rugh, W. (2004) Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, radio, and Television in Arab Politics. Westport, CT: Praeger.
 Sakr, N. (ed) (2004) Women and Media in the Middle East: Power Through Self-Expression. London, UK: I.B. Tauris
 Walsh-Childers, K., Chance, J, and Herzog, K. (1996) ‘Sexual Harassment of Women Journalists’. Journalism and Mass
Communication Quarterly. 73(3):559-582.