CAREER CHOICES FOR FEMALE JOURNALISM STUDENTS: A CASE IN
ZAMBIA
ROSE NYONDO, University of Zambia
Abstract
There is an increasing number of female journalism students in training institutions in North
America, Europe and Asia (Frohlich, 2004; Credon, 1993; Kosicki & Bercker, 1992; Peterson,
1988). However, it has been observed that there is a disproportionate number of practising
female journalists who graduate from these programmes (Jurkowitz 2003).
The same appears is the case in Zambia: The numbers of female students graduating from
journalism schools are high (Nyondo 2005), but the number of those practising in newsrooms is
disproportionately lower.
For example, University of Zambia (UNZA) records of graduates in the Department of Mass
Communication indicate that more women than men graduate as journalists. The author’s
observations based on over twenty years of teaching journalism in the UNZA programme is
that in their entry year, the female students declare that they want to be trained as
journalists and to work in the newsroom. But by third and fourth year, their career direction
seems to change. They lose interest in traditional journalism reporting and begin to prefer
public relations and other specializations in the communications industry.
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Even those who at graduation accept reporting positions in the newsrooms, pursue alternative
careers within the first three years. This phenomenon brings up a critical question: What drives
females out of the newsroom?
Besides the obvious matter of better salaries, what other factors influence career choices of
female journalists? This paper advances the argument that culturally based gender roles are a
significant factor in the careers of female journalists in Zambia. It posits that additional
influences on career choices are grounded in socialisation, biased attitudes, cultural beliefs
and are gender based.
Key words
1 Gender, 2 Socialization , 3 Culture.
Introduction
The reasons why women abandon their journey to the top of the cooperate ladder in most
professions has been well documented by several researchers in Western Europe , North
America and East Asia (Gallage, 1981; Lafty, 1991;
van Zoone,1994, wijngaard, 1992). The following are cited as some of the reasons why women
fail to make it up the to the top : Starting a family, associated responsibilities of raising
children, double shifts in career and home, lack of support at home and from employers,
discrimination through gender-role stereotyping, male- female interaction, social norms,
greater control from management.
This paper shows that female journalists in Zambia have not been exempt from the same
pressures that their colleagues in other parts of the world face. For a media house to function
to its maximum ability and be well balanced , you will agree with me that it needs both men
and women to run the affairs of the institution. What can media houses do to retain female
journalist in the newsrooms?
Before this question is investigated further, and some solutions proposed, there is need to
clarify the use of some key concepts. These are socialization, gender, and culture.
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(a) Gender
Gender as defined in the national gender policy in Zambia is a socio-economic and political
variable with which to analyse roles, responsibilities, constraints, and opportunities of people; it
considers both men and women (GIDD, 2000). Neither are gender and sex, nor gender and
women synonymous. Gender refers to roles; sex refers to the biological state of being female
or male; and women refers to adult females. The dictionary says, gender refers to the
differences between men and women that are socially constructed, changeable over time, and
that have wide variations within and between cultures.
GIDD defines gender awareness as a commitment to placing women’s needs and priorities at
the centre of development and planning programming, and analysing programmes and projects
for the differential impacts that they have on women and men (2000).
And gender blindness is the inability to consider the differences between women’s and
men’s needs, benefits, access to resources, access to power, or socio-political status; it is the
absence of gender analysis from thought or practice.
GID defines gender blindness as the process of ignoring and failing to address the gender
dimension. (2000)
Gender equality is a situation where women and men have equal conditions for realising their
full rights and potential to contribute to and benefit from socio-economic, cultural and
political development of a nation, taking into account their similarities, differences and varying
roles that they play (Ibid) .
Gender imbalances are the inequalities, which exist between females and males and are not
related to their sex roles. GID 2000.
( a) Socialization
Socialization usually refers to the various ways in which individuals become social subjects
after interacting in a given environment with a range of variables .
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McQuail defines socialization as the teaching of established norms and behaviour’, and as ‘the
learning process whereby we all learn how to behave in certain situations and learn the
expectations which go with a given role or status in society’ (1987: 280). Thus socialization is
an ongoing process from childhood to adulthood.
This author acknowledges that in the career choices of journalist there are several variables at
play such as age, level of education, peer pressure, economic needs, family pressure and many
more.
( c ) Culture
Culture is an elusive term to define, especially when we are looking for gender boundaries of
either men or women. This paper has no intention of going into that debate. We will define
culture as ways of life . In the words of Corner culture refers to conditions and forms in which
meaning and values are structured and articulated within a society’ (Corner, 1991:131).
Culture is the whole complex of distinctive, spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional
attributes that characterise a society or social group GIDD2000. Through socialization the
female students learn their roles as defined by the background of the culture they are raised in.
These roles are that as a woman, you have to be a mother, raise up children. This is what
society expects women to be.
By the time they get to the third and fourth year of university study, it dawns on most of them
that their career choice will be conflicting with their roles as perfect mother, perfect wife,
perfect home maker. Their socialization stands in tandem to their careers.
Methodology
The data and materials for this paper were collected through the following channels:
a) Literature review of documents on female journalists , gender issues and others.
b) Graduate data from the UNZA student records.
c) Observation of student’s behaviours over a period of time of twenty years working at UNZA.
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d) Interviews with female practicing journalists and past graduates of the Department of
Mass Communication.
e) Interviews with students , and 43 questionnaires were sent collected and data entered
into an SPSS programme for analysis.
Background
Barriers to women’s ability to climb the cooperate ladder in the media
industry and negative
or gender-blind and biased attitudes in the media are varied. They include, women’s low status
in society, traditional and cultural expectations, heavy workloads, double shifts of working at
home and office, and their absence in positions of formal authority or decision-making(
Nyondo, 2005).
Gender bias in different institutions including media houses as observed today derives its roots
from the time society begun differentiating roles between women and men. These roles
were defined according to societal beliefs and customs. The customs and beliefs became the
norm by adoption and compliance. Society started to perceive men’s roles as being superior to
those of women and the status of men was given a superior position. The superior status
ensured men’s start to dominance in all areas of human activity with exception of maternal
roles of carrying a baby for nine months and breast feeding.
The colonial governments in Africa made it worse. Females were discriminated against in the
education system and society accepted it. Interviews with older women in a literacy class
revealed that females who pursued any formal education were even labelled prostitutes. The
colonial system gave education and employment to males, therefore, men became
responsible for policy formulation and drafting of rules and regulations. In the process their
priorities did not consider women’s interests. The colonial governments by empowering men
with education and employment, automatically positioned them as the sole bread earners of
the families. The important role that a traditional woman held in the home was diminished
more and more. This masculine culture reflected in society in general and penetrated media
houses and other institutions and social sectors.
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The masculine newsroom culture:
The same gender biases found in the institutions of society filtered into media houses and
newsrooms. From the time of the dawn of the printing era of the 14th century, to the first
female professional journalist Anne Royall of 1800s to the yellow press in the early 19th
century, men supervised media houses and the newsrooms, constructed the rules and
regulations and set the standards of what is news worthy and what is good professional
conduct. The ethos of what we call journalism today comes from that background. The
regulations and rules of conduct suited the masculine world and had little consideration for
female interests. The work schedules, the shift hours and assignments of different news beats
all perpetuate the old acquired and learned biases in society. In general, rules of the game
were blended to suit male conditions and their interpretations worked to the advantage of men
journalists. One of the elements alluded to in the research done by Ross (2004: 145) was the
culture of long working hours. Female journalists find it quite taxing to meet the demands of a
“good mother” and at the same time observe the long working hours.
The masculine newsroom culture has spilled into the stories journalists write. The criteria of
‘importance’ in news worthiness become an issue when a reporter quotes female sources.
The questions are: What does she know about the topic? What is her level of education? Who
is she in society? These arguments have been reflected in Weaver’s work that looks at gender
as feminism that will bring the news standards down as the reporter will be tapping ordinary
people as sources ( 2004: 39). The questions raised can make women to be reserved and
maintain the culture of silence. The journalists who are supposed to be more knowledgeable
make no effort to break the stigma.
However, reasons for women abandoning the newsroom are multifaceted with various
variables at interplay. Some professional journalists in Lusaka who had left the newsroom
had the following to say:
“I enjoyed my work in the newsroom, but the salary was too low.’’
“I needed a job that could help me build some financial base in life.”
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“ At that time I was engaged and about to start a family.”
“What I like about my present job is the flexible working hours which allow me to spend time
with my kids.”
“I can drop them at school, pick them up and monitor what they eat."
When asked to comment on the masculine culture in the newsroom , some had this to say:
“That will always be there, you just learn to put your foot down and to prove to them that you
are equally qualified.”
‘’After rubbing shoulders with my male colleagues for a long time I eventually gained their
respect’’.
Wouldn’t the spouse help take care of the children? The response was: “Yes he does when he
is off,” but I still want to monitor their eating and follow up of their clinic visits for the Under
Five vaccinations. In general I want to spend more time with them as they grow.”
Interviews with first year female mass communications students at UNZA had the following
revelations. They wanted to be mass communication majors to become journalists, write
stories, read news, and produce programmes. The majority simply said they wanted to be
reporters, educate society and that was their childhood dream. They all had role models who
inspired them. Most of the role models sighted are still active journalists in the industry. When
asked to give names of role models who inspire them in their choices , the Cited names from
both current students and graduates were names of practicing journalist in the newsroom
and news presentation. There was not a single name of any marketing or public relations
practitioner, indicating that the original desire was to be a practicing journalists. Names that
came up more often than others were Maurenn Nkandu, former BBC reporter and now with
SABC; Ann Mukabe, news presenter with ZNBC in Kitwe; Chanza Sikazwe a part time news
presenter with ZNBC in Lusaka. Of all the models cited only Maureen Nkandu had reached at
the nearest top notch on the ladder.
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However, by the third year, the same students start looking at other options. They want to
work in marketing, public relations, academia and other options. This is because a good
number of their childhood models have not climbed the cooperate ladder to the level they
want to reach. The students start considering media attachments with banks or other
companies that offer opportunities for employment. The reasons for change of career focus
vary from, employment opportunity, to better paying jobs, and to narrow chances of
succeeding in the newsroom. The absence of female journalists in top management positions is
another factor that gives discouragement to upcoming female journalists. According to Made
and Lowe in Glass Ceilings 2009 only 11% of management positions are filled by women in
Zambian media houses. The absence of women in decision making positions does not
negatively impact on the news content and programming but indirectly affect career choices for
journalism students. The gender roles of family responsibility are not as pronounced at third
year.
Fourth year female students and graduating female students responses start reflecting
cultural norms, gender roles, family responsibilities and wanting to get a good salary . They
start feeling that their career and professional choice to be reporters is not compatible to
being a perfect house wife, a perfect home maker, perfect mother but they still have the desire
and zeal to succeed out there. The desire and zeal by women to succeed is also discussed at
length by McAdams, (1981).
Why do female journalist leave the newsroom after three years or at the earliest opportunity?
The answers to this question vary, but the following answers came up in the order of
importance.
The poor salaries and rare promotion for female journalists came out strongly among all the
graduates. The incompatibility of social gender roles and masculine domination of newsroom
culture were cited by all respondents.
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The feminists activism and gender awareness campaigns have slowly contributed to a
considerable change of the stereo type image of women in the media. However, the attitude
and opinions on women and their static roles in society are far from changing and are still
lagging behind the realities of the modern world.
The socialization that students go through from first year to the time they graduate gives them
a range of red flags in their career choices . One very clear red flag is too few models in the
profession.
We have never had a women chief editor of a major daily newspaper in Zambia other than
those courageous women journalist who have started their own weekly or biweekly
newspapers. It looks like, as a woman you are not just good enough to make it up there. The
broadcast industry is equally bad, women are under represented in top management positions
in all broadcasting houses including community media. “Why fight for something
unattainable,” A female journalist once asked.
Meanwhile the enrolment of female students in the UNZA Department of Mass Communication
is still in the upswing. The following are the current figures:
Females
56%
Males
Third Years
19%
Males
First Years
44%
Females
81%
9
As academicians, the revelations of this data pauses a big question?
FIRST YEAR’S DATA (SAMPLE=15)
Reason major mass communication
14
12
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Outstanding reasons for first year students on career choice was:
The desire to educate society,
Childhood dream
Chances for career development
Freedom of speech
10
pr
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ee ric
do a's
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Count
THIRD AND FOURTH YEARS (SAMPLE=21)
Reason major in mass communication
8
7
6
5
4
3
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1
0
The third and fourth years career choices are influenced by the desire to:
Freedom of speech
Be able to speak in public
Opportunities for career development,
and desire to own media house .
GRADUATES (SAMPLE=7)
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Reason major in mass communication
Ed
uc
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4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
For graduates they cited working in Public Relation and childhood dreams as the main reasons
for their career choice.
The following reasons were given to explain the absence of female journalist in the newsroom.
In order of importance two issues came out strongly:
1. Promotions for female journalists in the news room are rare ;
2. The money I was making was too little for my qualifications
All the questionnaires responded that the working hours were not conducive
To the other responsibilities, that society looks down on female journalists,
that there was too much male domination in the industry and that the newsroom
deadlines could not accommodate cultural gender roles.
Suggestions
For female journalist to survive in the newsroom society needs to work on its attitudes toward
female journalists. The gender roles of motherhood cannot be taken away from women neither
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can they be shared. However, responsibilities of child rearing have nothing to do with gender
roles. Both parents must take responsibilities in monitoring the growth of their product.
Media houses should rework their work schedule to accommodate working mothers. I
recommend THE POST newspaper policy that has put in place penalties for any male
chauvinism. Monetary incentives for hard working mothers would be another way to attract
female journalists to stay in the newsroom. The media through its role to inform and educate
society has a great weapon to help society change their negative attitudes toward female
journalists or towards women in general.
The Southern African Editors Forum needs to address the absence and disappearance of
women in the newsrooms.
There is great need to put some emphasis on curricula changes in our journalism courses to
incorporate gender as course content from first year courses to post graduate courses.
We can make the process of curricula development into a SADC project.
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References
1.
Gender in Development Division (2000), National Gender Policy. Lusaka: Cabinet Office.
2.
ZAMCOM(2003) Gender and Media Training Manual
Sida and Zambia Institute of Mass Communication Education Trust
3.
MISA and Gender Links (2003) Gender and Media Baseline Study
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.
4.
Lopi B.(1999) Reporting Gender in Southern Africa; A Media Guide.
SARDC. ZAMCOM.
5.
Marjan de Bruiun Karen Ross (2004)
Gender and Newsroom Cultures
Identities at Work.
Hampton Press, Inc. Cresskill, New Jersey.
6.
Colleen Lowe Morna ( 2004 ) Getting It Right Gender and media
in Southern Africa , Gender Links
7.
Made P. and Lowe Morna C. (2009) Glass Ceilings Women and men in Southern Africa Media
Gedner Links Johannesburg, South Africa .
8.
Sampa Annie Etal (1994) Gender Bias in the Zambian Court system:
A report based on research Findings.
9.
http://www.erc.ed.gov 1981
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