Alliance For Women In Media Charges Journalists Take Lead Role In Closing Gender Gap In Politics

• The convener of the Alliance for Women in Media Africa has called on the media to work at improving coverage of women in politics
• Shamima Muslim stressed that the media needed to understand the gender gap better to effectively address it
• She said the media was critical to changing all Ghanaian's mindsets about women in politics

With another election cycle set to be dominated by men, the Alliance for Women in Media Africa stressed that the media is critical to ensuring more gender parity in Ghanaian politics.

The group’s convener, Shamima Muslim, told YEN.com.gh that the media has the most significant potential to change the mindset of Ghanaians towards politics.

For the media to spark a change, Muslim, who has worked as a journalist in the past, said it needed to be more knowledgeable than it is now.

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“The media themselves hasn’t done enough to spotlight the issues largely because they themselves haven’t educated themselves on the issues.”

“We must be persistent in reassuring women to trust the media back and recognising that the media can be used purposefully to push and promote their political agenda," she said.

Over the years, Ghana's two leading political parties have seen just one woman make a bid for the flagbearer slot, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings for the NDC.

The governing party, NPP, currently has 10 men and no women contesting to become the flagbearer.

The World Economic Forum has Ghana ranked 108 in the Global Gender Gap Report for 2022.

More advocacy needed

While she noted that coverage of women in politics has improved over the last few years, she also called for more voices to advocate for better coverage of women in politics.

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She noted the Ghana Journalist Association as an example of an influential group that can advocate for better coverage of women.

"The more voices that speak up, the more awareness we will have about the injustice and unfairness."

Economic barriers to women

Muslim also bemoaned the economic barriers for women in politics

She also expressed concerns to YEN.com.gh that politics in Ghana has now become dominated by money and a politician's financial clout.

She suggested the use of advocacy to force the NPP and NDC to adopt women running mates for elections

Source: YEN.com.gh