Journalism: Women's contributions
Myra Imran
Staff correspondent
The News
Myra Imran
Staff Reporter
The News
 In
almost every part of the world, men
dominated the domain of journalism for a
long time.
 It was in the mid 20th century that some
women ventured to be journalists in the
western countries. But it was in the late 20th
century that the number of female
journalists increased considerably.
 The
situation was same in the subcontinent
where men dominated media and publication
sector.
 As education was highly discouraged for
Muslim women, very few dared to be
journalists before the emergence of
Pakistan.
 The first magazine (Urdu) meant for Muslim
women was “Tahzeeb-e-Niswan” which was
published in 1898 under the influence of
Tahzeeb-ul-Akhlaq of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.















1904 Parda Nasheen
1904 Khatoon
1908 Is mat Delhi
1909 Al-Hijab Bhopal
1909 Shareef Bibian
1909 Ustaani
1911 Tamadun
1913 Payaam-e-Umeed
1915 Saheli
1915 Al_Nisa
1922 Khadma
1925 Sir Taj
1926 Haram
1926 Noor Jahan













1926 Humjok
1928 Surraya
1929 Safeena-e-Niswan
1931 Merriam
1932 Muslama
1934 Zeb-Unisa
1936 Khatoon-e-Sarhad
1937 Khadim-e-Niswan
1937 Tanveer
1938 Hoor
1941 Sohag
1941 Sada-e-Niswn
1943 Zainab
1943 Johar-e-Niswan
 It
was not a very good start from feminists
point of view but it indicated that much
needed change started happening. Logic
 The few names of women journalists of that
time included Sughra Begum, Maryam
Begum, Imtiaz Fatima, Begum Ghafoor, Salah
Khatoon etc.






In 1948 Fatima Begum a worker of Pakistan movement
launched a daily Urdu paper “Khatoon” from Lahore.
Women’s Page: In 1948 a daily newspaper Inqilab from
Lahore (1927) started publishing a page “women’s page”
on daily basis. The main caption of the page was
“Nisayat”. It contained articles relating to women’s
development & welfare, recepies, information about
knitting and stitching.
Women’s Edition: In 1949 daily Imroz started in match
publishing a weakly women’s edition.
It’s sister publication “The Pakistan Times” also started
“women’ section” which being appeared on Sunday.
Dawn also followed suit.
Now about all English and Urdu dailies are publishing
weekly women’s editions under different names.
Women started entering mainstream journalism
and challenged the norms.
 They became editors of newspapers and political
magazines like Razia Bhatti, Sherry Rehman and
Maleeha Lodhi
 Fauzia Shahid became the General Secretary of
PFUJ.
 There was Zahida Hina, Rubab Ayesha, Mariana
Babar,
 These women had expertise in current affairs,
economics, foreign policy, human rights, good
governance and conflict resolution.

 Female
journalists started working as reporters and
sub-editors and features writer in
 They paved the way for the upcoming women
journalists by surviving and fighting with the odds in
highly male dominated media industry-they entered
the domain of hard news.
 But, the number remained very thin.
 There was a huge retention issue that still exists.
Majority of women who joined at that time
ultimately left media.
With rapid boom in electronic media, a new
breed of women journalists emerged.
 Women journalists from Karachi to Peshawar
proved they have the ability to work and the
willpower and conviction to do their work in a
professional and meaningful way.
 Furthermore, they demonstrated a unique
adeptness towards political, economic and social
issues and have successfully honed in on niches
that had previously remained neglected.
 They proved themselves with investigative,
business, human interest and child-friendly
stories through view points that male journalists
had not touched upon.

 They
highlighted the problems faced by
women.
 They represented women.
 They introduced gender aspect.
 They became role models for women.
 They highlighted social issue, an ignored
area, as never been covered before.
 They joined journalist unions and strived to
make media industry environment friendly
for women.
 They boosted the image of the country.
Despite the progress and breakthroughs,
working conditions in media organizations,
electronic and print, remained discouraging,
difficult and prejudiced for women.
 disparity in salaries as compared to male
colleagues
 stability and sustainability of employment
 lack of peer respect
 lack of basic gender sensitive facilities and
awareness and, worst of all
 varying types of harassment.




The number of women journalists remained
extremely low.
WJP data: In Rawalpindi and Islamabad, there are 68
women journalists, around 12 cover parliament with
5 mainly reporting on the women parliamentarians.
Only one women journalist among these 12 covers
foreign office, one covers Prime Minister and one
covers political party (PML N).
Remaining 56 women journalists cover social issues
mainly education, culture, women, youth, children,
human rights, science and technology, social welfare
and health.
Among total 68 women journalists, 13 are the
members of National Press Club which means only a
small percentage can vote or contest in the
elections.
For women journalists to have an impact and be
productive the first issue that needs to be fixed
is the work place and work atmosphere.
 The work place has been a male-dominated
domain for so long that male spoken and body
language is frequently off-putting for females
and little has been done to change this prevalent
state of affairs.
 Women journalists are forever on the guard and
cannot relax for a moment. The anxiety resulting
from such a work atmosphere affects their
professional performance with the result that
most women journalists never progress beyond
their initial duties.





One of the worst problems faced by women journalists is
professional and sexual harassment by colleagues, management,
contacts and even government/semi-government officials.
If and when a complaint is made, it is treated with amusement,
cynicism, indignity and anger. It is treated as an affront to the
organization and considered an attempt to dishonor and disgrace
the organization as well as the accused individual.
Harassment of female media persons comes in many forms within
the office:
Frequently, female reporters/media persons find that it’s not just
their colleagues that can be troublesome or the authors of
harassment. In the line of their duty, while interviewing news
makers, government officials and people of influence they often
come across unreasonable demands. These usually include been
asked out for lunch/dinner, asked for their telephone number,
offers of marriage or ‘friendship’, offers of better jobs and even
promises of foreign postings… all at a cost of course.

Whispered innuendo every time a female media person passes by

Deliberately walking or pushing past in close proximity

Intruding on personal space while talking, rumors

Discussions/jokes of unpleasant and unsavory nature within earshot of females

Asking women journalists/media workers for their telephone numbers

Telephoning for reasons unrelated to work

Familiarity where none is been encouraged

Deliberately sending female media persons to places not required to go.

Unsolicited invitations to lunch/dinner

Deliberately spoiling/putting up hurdles, Deliberately downplaying good work

Deliberately intruding and interfering with official work

Insults and sarcasm where none is needed

Threatening termination of service if certain physical favors are not provided

Withholding salaries

Withholding benefits



Female media workers should have the comfort and
confidence in their employers to provide stability and
sustainability in employment. However, this is far
from reality. Whenever a media house has financial
difficulties or the management makes a decision to
downsize, women media workers are the first to get
the chop.
This lack of professional appreciation often leaves
women media workers embittered and hampers their
potential.
Women media workers need to be aware of their
work rights. They have to have the confidence to be
able to tell their male colleagues and bosses that
they are serious contenders for the long term and are
professionally up there with them and rather than
letting gender decide matters.




Sadly enough female journalist/media persons, unless they
are TV anchors/hosts, get paid extremely poorly. Their
salaries are almost always much lower than their male
counterparts.
The salaries are so unattractive that many potential
female journalists and media persons either get
disheartened and quit or are encouraged to leave by their
family and parents.
Parental, social and monetary compulsion finally take their
toll as women leave media to join other more financially
rewarding and stable jobs. This is regretful because ever
so often a budding media person/journalist is lost before
she’s even hit her stride.
With no realistic steps taken to ensure retaining and
encouraging women in journalism, it comes as no surprise
that the large influx of women that came into media three
to four years back have quit and taken up other
professions.



Another major challenge they face is mobility One of
the first questions asked at interviews for media jobs
is: “What mode of transport do you have?”
Despite this setback most women working in media
houses use public transportation like buses, Suzukis,
and wagons all of which are highly unfriendly. This
makes access to various work-related areas and spots
difficult for women.
Strangely enough a simple solution would be to
provide female staff with office transport as do many
other organizations in Pakistan. But this has not yet
occurred to most media houses. Another solution
would be to provide female journalists with soft loans
to redress mobility issues.

One of the biggest problems holding back the development of women
journalists and media persons is the lack of motivation and
professionalism.

There is no formal in-house training process in any media house to guide
and supervise new comers to media. This is because of lack of planning,
lack of vision, lack of awareness and a ‘don’t care’ attitude which
disncourages newcomers, especially women, to learn the dos and don’ts of
the profession the hard way.

They are left at the mercies of whoever is available to show them bits and
pieces of work and therefore are more likely to pick up bad habits and a
non-professional approach towards work.

What is happening is that journalists, including female media persons, no
longer have the patience to learn the skills and knowledge required to
master the job.

Lack of professionalism also results in lack of motivation.
Media houses and organizations purposely either
side step or completely pretend that there is no
need to provide women media workers with
basic facilities and rights such as medical,
transport and old age benefits.
 Many media houses do not have the provision of
allowing women a reasonable period of
maternity leave. Although Pakistani laws permit
a period of 12 weeks, most media houses want
new mothers back by the end of the fourth week
after delivery.
 Although women workers with small children
have taken up the issue many times, no provision
is made for setting up an in-house day care
centre.

Although Pakistan boasts a healthy number of
media associations and press clubs, hardly a step
has been taken by them to facilitate women
journalists and media persons.
 Indeed women journalists only have associate
membership of the National Press Club. This is
primarily because of the misplaced perception
that women media persons do not last in their
job long enough.
 The same is the case with most press clubs and
usually women are provided one unused room to
carry out their professional and recreational
activities.

 Seminars,
workshops, and courses designed
to improve the capacity and professional
skills of journalists in Pakistan are rare
events and are usually conducted by
international donor agencies.
 The concept of in-house capacity building
usually never occurs and any such knowledge
is passed on from senior sot juniors correctly
on incorrectly.
 Women rarely avail the opportunities of
international courses, scholarships and
workshops.










Training & Capacity Building
Building a Vibrant & Responsible Network
Cultivating & Grooming Effective Leaders
Honoring Courage & Competence
Awareness of Rights
Better Workplace Facilities
Better Salaries
Accreditation, International Scholarships & Tours
News and reporters rooms be made more gender friendly. Genderfriendly behavioral code should be formulated an enforced.
All female media persons and their male colleagues must be aware
of sexual harassment laws.
Wish You A Wonderful Life