Opinion / Li Xing
Media and gender equality
By Li Xing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-09-29 06:03
I was cynically pleased when Communication University of China (CUC) in
Beijing trumpeted the establishment of an UNESCO Chair on Media and
Gender in its campus last week as the country's first journalism and
communications research facility to link media studies with gender issues.
As early as in 1995, during the United Nations Fourth World Conference on
Women held in Beijing, the member states promised to focus on 12 key
areas to help women's advancement towards achieving gender equality.
Women and media was identified as one of the priority areas of concern.
But it still took a decade before a leading - arguably the best -
institution of higher learning for training media professionals decided
it was time they went into that area of research.
It is not surprising, though. After all, few media executives or leading
media researchers are clear about what gender issues are. Even fewer are
aware of how the media can promote gender equality but can also reinforce
traditional male dominance in society and stereotypical bias against
women.
That is why more than a decade after China announced that achieving
equality between men and women was a State policy, television programmes
and newspapers continue to sensationalize misfortunes of women migrant
workers and blame wives for the fall of corrupt male officials.
While farming women contribute more than 60 per cent of the country's
agricultural production, they hit only a very tiny percentage of news
headlines. The reason is the people who pay for the news products are not
interested in those who help feed and clothe them.
In TV advertisements, women always appear in ads promoting kitchenware or
washing machines, while men stand out more as successful professionals.
Some TV dramas and tales on the Internet are even more blatant, where
women's subservience to men is featured as the social norm.
What is sad is even the few women media executives are not aware of the
problems of gender inequality in media organizations and media coverage.
I once heard a Beijing media executive proclaim that she alone has proven
that gender is not a problem, because she was "doing superfine."
I myself grew up quite complacent about what I could achieve when I
compared myself with most of my male peers.
I took pride not only in my academic performances in school, but also in
hard physical labour in the countryside. There, I once competed with the
boys in carrying two buckets of water on a shoulder pole in the fields.
At lunch time, I ordered three steamed meat-rolls - the ration for boys -
but one more than the girls' ration.
My argument: I did as much as the boys did.
But later on, especially during the United Nations' Fourth World
Conference on Women, I learned a few personal successes cannot cover up
the fact that women on the whole are still disadvantaged in education,
employment and, especially, politics.
Even some of the most successful concede that although they double men's
efforts, they may still hit the glass ceiling.
Despite all the misgivings, I commend the chair, Professor Liu Liqun, and
her colleagues, for their pledge to shoulder a "heavy responsibility" to
promote women's media power and develop mainstream gender awareness in
media and society.
They seem resolved in what they will do, as Professor Liu proclaimed:
"Gender equality and empowering women are key features of the Millennium
Goals (set by the United Nations).
"Media, as an important part of society's communication, has a strong
impact on gender equality and development."
I can only hope for success in the centre's research and projections, and
wish more media researchers and workers follow suit and make gender
equality one of their key concerns in their work.
Above all, with 70 per cent of the nation's illiterates and more than
half of the poverty-stricken population being women, gender equality is a
major contributing factor towards a harmonious and well-off society.
(China Daily 09/29/2005 page4)
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