Introduction:
The myth that our human world is a “men’s world” is founded upon the practical reality of the complete over-riding and dominant influence of the male over the female gender in all facets of our public life. Modern education together with the advancement in science and technology, which processes have accelerated in tandem especially in the last century, have tremendously increased the skill acquisitions and enhanced the productive efficiencies and capabilities of women as much as men. Armed with these two, women have expanded their roles from procreation and social care-giving within the family to major and significant contributions to development in all fields of human concern and endeavors. Yet in spite of their significant contributions in modern society, women have continued to be regarded and treated as a second fiddle and un-equal partners in the modern human development process.
The structure of inequality pitched against the female gender has become an issue of grave concern in human development discourses. One of the big challenges facing the world today is therefore how to eliminate the gender disparity and gap between men and women and allow equal opportunities to all human persons without recourse to gender bias. At the global level, the United Nations has taken the major step by highlighting the achievement of gender equality in our world as one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
At the level of individual nations, the global awareness campaign for the cause of women is yielding just very little results. This is especially the case with countries in Africa. The little change seems to be mainly in the area of politics, where the strong fight by the women has produced the first female President in Liberia today in the Person of Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. In other public walks of life such as in the professions and specialized fields of work, women in Africa particularly have still remained marginalized and excluded especially from the commanding heights or echelon of leadership and control of the decision making and policy formulation processes.
Nigeria, like most African countries, is still faced with the big challenge of achieving a better status for the women gender in the public life of the nation. The Nigerian society generally seems to be very slow in accepting the change evolving in the roles of women in the modern world. The perception, attitude and recognition is still very low, with the result that women have continued to be marginalized and denied leadership positions in all walks of life. Leadership in noble professions like Medicine, Architecture, and Journalism among others is still the exclusive reserve of the men folk which is denied to women even when they qualify and excel in the professional practice. This is more or less a cultural thing.
The Journalism profession is particularly one of the crucial areas in which the marginalization and exclusion of women has played out most saliently in the modern Nigerian society. The representation of women in the media in Nigeria has long been an issue of major concern and one of the main areas of focus for research in mass media studies. These inquiries have focused on the way women are seen, faired and perceived by those who set media agenda in Nigeria. The issue is borne out of the subordination of women by those who control the mass media. As the problem still persists, the discourse can never cease to be carried on, hence the needs for more studies until the final solutions are found. This proposed research is yet another effort in that direction.
Background:
In Nigeria, the business of writing and reposting the news has been an exclusively male dominated industry. Though few women have ventured into the industry, the percentage of women in the journalism professional in Nigeria is exceptionally low. Those in decision-making capacity are nothing to be proud of. It is appalling to note that with all the national newspapers in Nigeria 57 of them (onlinenigeria,com) only one actually has a woman as the editor. However, some women do serve as line editors. Judging by the population of Nigeria as of 2003 of well over 90 million people, women and men are almost equal in number (63, 2491.88 male & 62,911.036 female) (httt://www.population.gov.nf/factandfigure.htm), Yet the number of women represented in the media is less than five percent. Moreover, the few that have been given the opportunity to become part of this exclusive club have had to put up with great resistance. The women have had to fight for respect, equal opportunity and credibility. The hegemony of the male gender has been accentuated by their continued dominance of the media establishment. The ability to maintain their grip on the industry has allowed them to continue to set the limits and the extent to which women are involved in decision making process in the profession.
With the total lack of representation in the industry, the image of the Nigerian women that has continued to be projected in the society generally and in the Media circles in particular, has remained negative, and continued to undermine and berate or derogate the status and substance of the modern Nigerian woman. There is no appreciation for women’s role in media. The discourse and overall agenda is set such that women are viewed as pretty faces that are suitable mainly for entertainment purposes. The structure of the media content in Nigeria has continued to promote the notion that women in the media should be reserved for roles of sexuality and trivialities. This subjective representation of women in the Media industry of Nigeria is a major source of concern for many reasons. It undermines the rights of women and denies them equal opportunities of advancement. Issues of relevance to women in the agenda of human development are never initiated or fully featured in the Media content. It also denies the Nigerian society the benefit of maximizing the full potentials and human resources of the women in the national development process.
The present era in our human development is rightly referred to as the “Information Age”. This is a factual reference to the determinant role information plays in enabling as well as enhancing development in modern human society. The Media industry is therefore a portent tool in shaping as well as the vehicle for driving the development process in every nation. It not only plays these roles through dissemination and propagation of ideas that increase knowledge and enable change, but also by raising the right issues to shape the discourse and agenda of development. Adequate representation of all the social strata of the human population of the country is the main guarantee that the Media content and agenda will reflect issues and interests of all members of the society. This essential requirement is lacking in the Media practice in Nigeria as the women who make up such a substantial percentage of the population are excluded and marginalized. The issue of lack of adequate women participation in all sectors of the Nigerian society especially in the Media seems therefore to have a direct implication for the continued failure of development in the country. More studies are therefore necessary to search for appropriate solutions to this grave challenge to development in Nigeria.
Any history of gender and media needs to recognize gender stereotypes; their existence has significant consequences. Media establishment history in Nigeria clearly reveals that women have virtually no influence in determining how they are represented. Thus, media images are fashioned through the eyes of men and decision makers. Women are equally aware of the discriminatory hiring practices in the Nigeria media industry for a long time. It must be noted that officials pay little attention to this cancerous problem that continues to eat through the fabric of the society. The fact remains that the Nigerian media do not reflect gender demographics of the nation. Another problem with reiterating conception of masculinity and feminity that associate a fixed set of qualities with each gender is that they conceal the importance of social characteristics other than gender. Even among persons of the same gender, experiences with media often depend on ones race, nationality or class, therefore perceptions of the media and it’s content are gendered.
Majority of Nigerian women seem to be satisfied with their roles as wives, mother, and housekeepers, which are the images portrayed on television. Each media organization has formal policies that govern the content of its products, sexism rarely arise in these policies. It is imperative to counterbalance the impaired presentation of women in the media at large and to cover events and issues of concern to women.
Inequality exists in media employment, in editorial and advertising decisions. Social values, often hidden from analysis, are the bedrock of inequality. Women have very few female role models in journalism. Therefore, it is difficult for female students to imagine themselves as successful professionals and for male students to interact with professional women. With faculties composed largely of men, female students must seek counseling from men. Media content is monotonously stereotypic in portrayals of women and men, Women are portrayed as passive, while men as aggressive and independent. Men control Media organizations that produce these stereotypic portrayals. Very few of the hundreds of media publishers, producers, editors, etc., are women.
The vernacular newspaper, Iwe Irohin, was the first Nigerian newspaper to be established since 1859. Thus the Nigerian media now has a history of well over 140 years. Since the inception of television in the western part of the country in 1959, there are about 127 television and radio stations in Nigeria. In spite of this long history and the array of media establishments in Nigeria, women have been excluded from the mainstream for all these years. The situation was not helped by countless regulations promulgated by different military administrations in terms of media control, which did not do anything to address the disparities between men and women in the media industry.
Stereotypes of Nigerian Women
In Nigeria like any other countries, television, radio and print media influence, shape and direct the public thinking. Since women in politics are a novel thing in the country, one would have thought that the Nigerian media would portray women in a more palatable way than stereotyping. The rationale for trivialization of women is expressed in article written by Holtzman (1978). He wrote:
In Nigeria situation, a lot of historical, social research (sic) conducted, indicated that the (sic) women’s place is in the home. Right from childhood, children (male and female) are taught to keep the roles associated with their sexes. For example, a boy cannot be taught how to cook in the kitchen except after his seem day (sic) education he may be interested in catering studies as a profession.
To drive this point home he adds,
The Nigeria constitution is the only document, which would have declared nil (sic), and void the role of women as mothers in our homes only provides for equality in terms of voting and contesting elections.
What Bitros means here is that Nigerian women should be relieved from their child bearing and domestic duties that society assigned to them. Concurrently Ezeani points out: “it does not occur to see the constitution (which provides for full citizenship rights as regards voting and office holding) as a new model of thinking or a new code of society.” Ezeani, 1994, p. 193-194) It should be added that Nigerian Media are evident of this conservative and traditional stance (ibid.)
Given the wide spread belief as expressed by Bitros and endorsed by the general population, when such occurs, less powerful group such as women are at risk of being devalued and stereotyped by the news outlets. As Ayseli (2000) points out, when a group is construed negatively, it is easier to rally against such group. “Such a label makes it psychologically easier to discriminate against the members of the group.”
Endorsing this viewpoint, Anyanwu writes:
A content analysis of mainstream media in Nigeria reveals one dominant orientation. Women are largely seen and not heard. Their faces adorn newspapers. However, on important national and international issues, they fade out. Even when the news is about them, the story only gains real prominence if there is a male authority figure or newsmaker on the scene, (Anyanwu, 2002, p. 68)
Gender and Politics:
Staudt observed and cited in Robertson et al. (1986:206), that “contemporary women’s group enter political fray with reason related to gender, they meet with limited success” For example, men create hostile climate for women in their demands. We are too familiar with slogans and warnings by male politicians of the dire consequences of women’s equality such as soaring divorce rate, a rise in illegitimacy and the loss of African customs. This creates siege mentally and had disallowed women from participating in politics (ibid). Ambition is a plus for men but a liability for women. Women are often stigmatized by the system. Over the years, women have become victims of irresponsible policy, sexual inequality within the system as well as lack of representation that continue to allow their interest to be underrepresented. In addition, according to Ifeyinwa Udezuku (1999) and cited in the book Feminization of Development Process in Africa, the woman is proletariat, and man the elite.
Women were also extremely scarce in news department decision-making positions. It is an irony that there is no employment data to corroborate this deficiency, since there is no accountability of any form that adequately pinpoints this acute shortage of women in the industry. The debate of whether women are less qualified or victims of sexism has not been confirmed in the Nigerian media, nevertheless the fact remains that women are on the short end of the stick.
It is appropriate to note the many names given to women in the media in Nigeria including one that portrays women as the weaker sex rather than looking at them as the most important asset in society. The communication of women issues in the media is hopelessly ridiculous since there is a lack of gender sensitive media policy that takes into account the appalling record of crime and negative reportage of women issues as well as overt sexism in the mainstream broadcast / print media. Unless women become adequately represented in the Nigeria media to effectively play active role in promoting gender sensitivity, women will always be marginalized
Many women organizations in Nigeria continue to maintain apolitical stance because of the dangers inherent in entering political fray. They are aware that they will not be successful. Rather than using their resources effectively in the political mainstream, most Nigerian women enter politics on the terms set by male elites, who use them for their own stakes.
During the nationalist period in Nigeria, competing national parties bided for the support of this large group of women. In spite of their numbers and organization, they merely served as vehicle to be tapped by the major political parties than to stand as active group to be recognized. (Cited in Robertson, et al: 1986:208). In some instances, they were co-opted into the major political parties to strengthen the party’s political base. In one instance, the party founded by the late Mrs. Ransome Kuti was co-opted into the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC) later changed to the (National Council of Nigerian Citizens). As a result, the strength of her party was watered down or became ineffective in galvanizing women to seek political positions. During the elections, these women organizations were nothing but toothless bulldogs. (Ibid).
Gender and Conflict:
The fact remains that the ratio of women to men in Nigeria media is comparatively small. Many of the social conflict issues raised directly affect women; female genital mutilation, polygamy, property succession rights, as well as the more violent issues such as displacement, loss of loved ones and livelihoods, family disintegration, rape, and other forms of abuse of women and girls.
Notably the involvement of women in the media in Nigeria is a recent, post- independence development. The advent of modernization coupled with creation of states as well as more radio and television broadcasting after the civil war brought some women into the all-male dominated media industry, even though the percentage of women in media remains comparatively low. Women in the media in Nigeria continue to come into conflict with this male-dominating media culture that continues to discriminate against women.
The media society looks at independent-minded women journalists as threats to authority at home or rather sexual prey to the all powerful men they happen to come in contact with during the course of their profession. Social attitudes also suggest that the media ignore prominent women’s views as journalists go about looking for authoritative comment. The consensus is that women issues are used to titillate and sell media products, while serious gender issues are neglected. It is a common practice in Liberia for women to buy spaces in the country’s newspaper to ensure that their views are heard. Meanwhile, women journalists have to fight hard to start a women’s column and ensure that it survives.
Newsroom prejudices and realities that moved women towards handling only women issues rather than politics, economics and sports, include training, opportunities, aptitude, and exposure. It is common to see women journalists in Nigeria working in areas they are not suited for as they are not encouraged to move into the male dominated editorial and management areas. Chris Anyanwu who spent time in prison under the military regime for what was said to have been her part in a coup plot is an exception to the rule having demonstrated her entrepreneurial and professional credentials in founding her own newspaper.
There are disparities between males and females journalists as they exercise their professional duties. These disparities are borne out in conflict situations as women are perceived and regarded as liabilities and not bold enough to withstand the rigors of reporting from the field. Making such comments about women covering conflict situations as, women cannot run, they are frivolous, wear make up and long nails, even in a country like Nigeria where not many women are into the entire so called idiosyncrasy.
It is an accepted norm in journalism to respect professionalism regardless of whether the journalist is a male or female. It is such an irony that Nigeria institutionalizes the media to form a barrier for women. Given the fact that men have the competitive edge in the selection processes, women are thought of as intruders in the gentlemen’s club of media. Most of the media establishments in Nigeria are reluctant to employ women to a high profile position as editors. Significantly, women lack the “old boy’s” network to empower them into the elite positions.
The media play a very important role in contributing to the socio-economic development of countries like Nigeria and in the transmission of societal values and norms. The media tend to ignore the fact that women are also intellectually capable, great decision makers, business-minded individuals capable of contributing immensely to media development. Perhaps this is why women continue to suffer the indignation of restricting stereotypes only to find their bodies marketed to sell everything from alcohol to cigarettes to cars.
Thus, a country like Nigeria embraced western development models with structure of nearly all her institutions, a regrettable reflection of westernization. The media in Nigeria is, for example, not living up to expectation, as the establishment of management is acutely a bias to women. That prompted Frank Ugboaja (1980) to say,
Nigeria’s media objectives were thus from the start based not on the cultural needs and values of Nigeria societies, but on its experiences and biases of culturally distant colonial experts; the media system was designed to be grafted onto Africans communities (P.16)
Men dominated the media then, they still dominate the media today.
Women and Change:
The wind of change that blew through Europe and Africa in the 1980s brought some much-needed change to the comity of African countries as well as other developing countries as they began to look at issues of concern to women and began to act appropriately to combat the disparities in gender development. Signs of progress for female journalists are mitigated by setbacks. Women are becoming better organized with professional associations and other bodies to promote women agendas. Although, it must be noted that in spite of the fact that women had made head ways in the media establishment and are becoming more and more prominent, they still lag behind in managerial positions.
In 1985, Kenya began to recognize the contribution of women to development and began to implement policies and programs that will ensure equitable share of benefits from development, hence eliminate gender biases. The Kenyan government increased the number of women in decision-making capacities in both traditional and non-traditional sectors. More and more women are seen in the media establishment writing and reporting the news. Mexico declared a decade for women and increased the role of women participation in planning and implementation of UN Development and population programs.
Prior to the changes, that swept the world in the 1980s; women in Nigeria and other parts of Africa had been seen as a major force in nation building and economic development. The United Nations report that women account for 1-to 2 percent of the senior management positions in the economic sector, and that it will take more than a century of tremendous hard work coupled with serious planning for women to be fully integrated in the system (UN, 1995), is a fair and accurate notation of how much work that is needed to be done to close this reprehensible gap. In all women-out number men by a margin of more than 2 to 1 ratio. The United Nations reported that less than one-third of women are in the work force. They are still being paid less than men for equal work and own less of the world’s wealth.
The Need for Change:
The world can no longer sit idly and not lend itself to gender issues, taking into account the role women had played and continue to play in ensuring peace and prosperity at home and abroad, economic prosperity in the work place, as well as peace and harmony in the political front.
As the world progresses in the 21st century, the need for change cannot be more apparent. Moreover, it is now more apparent that gender disparities should be outdated. Change and development initiative and efforts be made to decentralize the status quo and open the media institution as well as leadership areas to all to create a positive atmosphere of economic and social inclusion. Nigeria must take interest in promoting gender equality, encourage and facilitate social changes that are fundamental to the mobilization of gender equality and issues of concern to women.
Karl Deutsch (1963) defined social mobilization as the process in which major cluster of old, social, economic, and psychological commitments are eroded or broken, and people have acquired new patterns of socialization and behavior. Nigeria needs serious house cleaning and should work toward gender integration and reach out to women from all spheres of life.
Thus, as the media industry begins to recognize gender reforms and development, effective and successful planning should to be made to have women in strategic and recognizable positions within the industry. After all, the need for a multi-channeled information flow will be the underlying factor created to foster gender mix. Nothing will be accomplished without the participation of women if men continue their status quo. The media industry must attune to the voices of dissent, even as new generation of educated, progressive and dedicated women are emerging from all sectors and quickly becoming part of the mainstream.
Among the many reasons often given as an excuse to exclude women from leadership positions in the Nigerian media is the idea that women lack the necessary skills to effectively manage media outlets. Contrary to that opinion, women are known to exhibit good management qualities and have not been accorded the right to physically shoulder the responsibilities of managerial skills nonetheless to make decisions. One of the most obvious questions about leadership is also the most elusive. According to Richard Nixon (1982) who enumerated the traits of successful leadership, he proclaimed that high intelligence, courage, and hard work, tenacity, judgment, dedication to a great cause and a certain measure of charm as the key ingredients. (p.131). Nothing can be more accurate and assertive as prescription for the leadership in the media industry. Now is the opportune time to reach out to the disenfranchised women, the grassroots women and increase the number of women in key managerial and decision-making positions.
Situational Constraints:
Some writers and analysts stress the impact of situational constraints, most especially motherhood. The most enduring obstacle for women entering the media industry is responsibility for children at home. The unpredictability of daily schedule of women for their children continues to be an obstacle for their nontraditional participation in the profession. In addition to this, men believe that the rigors of reporting the news, the timeliness and immediacy may be too much of an activity to women as it is more conducive for men to travel from place to place without hindrance.
Many writers and researchers according to Cantor (1992) stress socialization as the main reason for gender inequality in the media industry. Males grow up in competitive environment. They are taught from early age to be team players. They are accustomed to winning and losing. Sports prepare men for these structured groups, even with people they do not particularly; as In contrast, Randall (1987) observed that,
“Women are traditionally socialized in small play groups that emphasize cooperation rather than competition.” “The problems confronting women in politics have been attributed chiefly to the tensions between ascribed and achieved status by female socialization.” P. 123).
Women have not been able to break through the male-dominated institution in droves because women are still being treated as a second sex. While these facts serve as an obstacle to gender equality, many women themselves continue to think that their place is in the home. Added to this, Nigerian women are divided between their support and loyalty.
Sexism is one important factor that inhibits women from gender equality. Nigerian women are no exception. A large segment of the women population in Nigeria do not feel comfortable when they choose positions that society considers unusual as their assigned sex roles. Many men will feel comfortable as long as a woman is seen as an appendage to men. In addition, the Nigerian society denigrates women in power. This is similar to the Biblical story of Delilah. Look at all the power Delilah had; yet her power was considered as very sexual. To many analysts, it is really not power; it is plain sexism. This kind of generalization puts down aggressiveness, outspokenness and ambition for women seeking higher and prominent roles in the media.
It should be noted that the education of women in African history is nothing to boast about because it does not serve to empower women. Male bias is one of the many factors that have inhibited women from taking active roles in the media industry. This is reinforced in many instances by colonial policy in Africa, the Caribbean, in the Middle East and even in Latin America that favored the education of males as opposed to females. This operated to cut off women from occupying managerial posts. The same bias is evident in postcolonial era. (Stratton; 1984: 80) Ayesha Iman clearly keynoted this at the Third Annual Conference of Women in Nigeria. She stated that:
Not only are there more boys than girls in schools, but also there are more school places for boys. (cited in Stratton)
She went on to say that 76 percent of families “would rather educate their sons than their daughters, if finances were limited” (Ibid) this has generated social prejudice that limits females from reaching their potentials and for not involving themselves with a war they thought they couldn’t win.
Parents in Nigeria contribute significantly to female’s inability to shatter the “ceiling glass” syndrome. Most parents believe that educating girls would amount to nothing, since they will eventually get married and leave home; the boys, on the other hand, will carry on the father’s legacy. As a result, women do not meet the necessary requirement for taking their rightful place within media elite. This reluctance to train women during colonial and postcolonial periods delayed women appearances in the educational scene, and has hence affected their economic and political participation.
Other constraint that continues to hamper women’s emancipation into the mainstream is the marginalization of the majority of women in the rural areas through what can be said to be the process of production and distribution. According to Ogbomo (1993), this has hampered the mobilization of women towards getting invited in political parties.
It must be noted that today the media industry in Nigeria is viewed by the leaders as the instrument to further their aims of nation building and modernization and for supporting the government in power (William Hatchen, 1971) they do not consider women as part of those that will shape the establishment. And they have been able to achieve this exclusion by tightening their control over the industry and in spite of the fact that the media industry is a conglomerate of newspapers, magazines and technological development, women still lack the necessary voice to shape the industry.
Nigerian women generally lack the financial capability to establish media outlets this constraint places full-fledged ownership in the corridors of men. In addition to this self- centered and self-serving pattern of ownership, men dominate the profession. This is evident from the phrase “Gentlemen of the Press”, often used to address journalists by public figures in Nigeria and thus underlies the assumption that there are no women in the media. The effect of this has been that men dominate the whole news media both in numbers and in key positions. For example, the Independent Journalism Center in Lagos, in a recent survey found that women are underrepresented in all aspects of the media. It is estimated that the percentage of women in the media profession is nothing to be proud of.
The domination of the news media by men and the predominance of male perspectives in news reporting have created a situation were there is lack of focus on the participation of women in all other areas of influence within Nigeria. Gender issues are not given adequate coverage in the media and where they are covered, they are perceived from a male point of view.
Conclusion:
The need for gender equality today cannot be over emphasized especially in this age of technological advancement. The need has not been more urgent to provide management programs in the media industry to propel women in economic, political and social development in the 21st century. It is believed that injustices directed at women in the media establishment over the years necessitated the need for change in attitude about sustainable development that will help to alleviate gender disparities. Every agenda, every initiative and every effort should be made to train and educate more women in management and other aspects of the media industry by keeping them abreast of changes in technology.
In an era when development is the subject of intense government concern, the need to recognize that the ultimate impact of modernization policies on women must be determined largely by how much power and influence women have. Development does not happen in a vacuum; it is subject to innumerable political and administrative influences. Individuals have argued the fact that women voices are seldom heard at any level within the media hierarchy. The historical trend of declining female power is not irreversible, as the experiences of societies in Western Europe and North America Have dictated. The expansion of political participation offers women the same opportunities it formerly offered property-less or uneducated men.
Balancing this relatively optimistic scenario is the grim reality of increasing militarization of politics throughout Nigeria. Although Nigeria is said to have a civilian regimes the regimes are only revised in the sense that the military come back to be chef executives in civilian clothing’s. Over and over, women have pointed out their under-representation in all media institutions including editorial decision making, advertising, the picture is hardly better for the future of women’s concerns. Although, it is recognized that some women in powerful positions identify themselves with men and not with women, the absence of women in these positions is still unhealthy. The late Margaret Mead argued for a greater internationalization of female roles to counteract the increasing dehumanization of the world.
In her book on discrimination against women in the Third World, Barbara Rogers (1980) focused on the dominance of male planners and a male bias in planning, and she notes that women planners do not automatically reverse preexisting discrimination against women in development projects. Since 1970, a debate has been underway concerning the effects of change in developing nations on the well being of women. In the study that marked the turning point in the thinking about women in Third World countries, Ester Boserup (1970) argued that single technological changes in farming could entail a “radical shift in sex roles in agriculture.” The exclusion of women from extra familial activities was not particularly important in the traditional society that was not concerned with progress, but it is an anachronism in a society that professes to wish to change and is actually investing both capital and effort in bringing about change and development. To confine women to the family structure is to keep them at subsistence level at a time when entire sectors of the economy are moving toward a money base. (p.5)
The theoretical justification for gender equality derives from the fact that women continue to contribute enormously into the political, social and economic prosperity of the country at large; they are yet to be far from sexual discrimination, job discrimination and exclusion. Thus effective media planning and agenda that recognizes the potentials of gender equality ought to be shining armor for all. Also an adequate flow of information is required for knowledge to be shared with those who have more and those who have less on gender issues.
It is a foregone conclusion that no nation can thrive in an atmosphere of gender inequality and exclusion. Therefore, for Nigeria to achieve greatness in this age of information, concerted efforts must be made towards gender equality and social empowerment for women. Every effort must be made to combat gender disparity, and provide initiatives that will further enhance and bring women to their rightful places within the industry. Women understand and can better explain issues of concern about women to women and the society at large. And according to slain civil right leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his letter from Birmingham city jail in Alabama;
“human progress never rolls on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through
the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with
God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces
of social stagnation.” (P.296)
He went on to say that people must use time creatively and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time for the media conglomerate in Nigeria to improve on gender equality. Finally, it will be the ideal and right thing for men to desist from dominating the media industry and give the much needed chance to allow equitable order in the way business is done so that women too can have a measure of success.
The ongoing revolution in global communications coupled with the introduction of new information technologies is a sign of change that is slowly creating the avenue for the Nigerian media to change the course of history and advance the cause of women. There must be an end to the negative projection and degrading images of women. Efforts must be made to grant equal access to women so that they can partake in the new information technology that will further widen their horizons and become contributors to the continue development of the media infrastructure in Nigeria.
It must be noted here that unless alternative and more challenging views on women should are portrayed in a positive light in the mainstream media if not given real access, these problems will continue to be the bone of contention for journalistic minded women whom have all the right qualification, but deprived of the profession they strive to be a part of. Kenneth Boulding (1973) said it an eloquent passage that, “the meaning of a message is the change it produces in the image.” (p.7) let us hope that the change will occur in the Nigerian Media.
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