I have just watched the UNHCR clip celebrating women all over the world with a wonderful clip that has the insanely popular song “Jerusalema” as its theme and all staff of UNHCR and refugees themselves, children and adults taking part in the challenge. Not only was it an appropriate song, because it is so celebratory and a call to unity and hope but because women are worth celebrating.
The song, by DJ Master KG, a young South African music producer, has roots in the book of Revelations about a new city of hope. It has become a world anthem. It made me smile and join and jump. It was so heart-warming and this is in fact how we should feel about the women in our lives and even the ones we meet randomly. That joy on the faces of everyone in the clip radiates in my heart when I see a woman scraping the last remains of food she has fed her entire family with or go hungry because the last born or even a stranger wanted more food.
In a gendered world, where women are constantly objectified, be it as a student, in their offices or at a refugee camp, the portrayal of women in the media particularly raises concerns about how we celebrate our women. On television, they are either jezebels, witches or husband snatchers. More often than not, young girls watching, who are being socialized, will grow up thinking their lives can never be better than mother or wife or husband snatcher or evil spirit.
In a year where Okonjo Iweala shatters the glass ceiling by not only becoming the first woman to ascend the position of DG, World Trade Organization, but also the first black person to attain that position, media must portray women better. Before our former Minister of Finance got to that position of hope, our former Minister of Environment, my friend Amina Mohammed, had gone on to occupy the top-level position of Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.
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The media can tell the story of women doing well as role models and give a better representation and fair space to women in their content
Our movie producers, news organizations and content creators have a lot to do to change the narrative. There are strong women out there, there are kind women out there, there are hardworking women out there and there are single-headed households out there where the women are carrying their fair share of the burden of raising a family alone. This business of breadwinner of the family has changed both in meaning and in the definition. The media can tell the story of women doing well as role models and give a better representation and fair space to women in their content.
The underrepresentation of women in the media is devastating. A 2015 study shows that only 19% of women are featured as experts in the news and 37% cover news stories as reporters. The media can tell the story of vulnerable girls and women being trafficked across the world in a trade that comes a close second to drug trafficking with big cartels who do not care if lives are destroyed. Their only concern is their profit from trading in flesh and destroying the next generation of mothers and nation builders.
The focus of the media can be on gender-based violence where a woman is trapped in a relationship based on fear. Gaslighting, physical abuse and rape is on the increase and we are even getting deeper into incest, it is heartbreaking. The media must join all stake-holding organizations to hold deviant men accountable and bring the women who have been abused in this dastardly manner to a place of healing. Media owners must join the fight and show that it is our collective responsibility to hold up our women. I am glad to see that the Nigerian Television Authority has a public service announcement called STARR. Stand up against rape. More media houses should volunteer their spaces for advocacy. It is an urgent call to action.
But let us even look at life in general. In this past week, what have you done for your wife, your partner, your girlfriend to celebrate International women’s day? Did you cook for her? Buy her a gift? Promise to stop hitting her? Treat her with more respect? That woman who cooks, cleans, toils and generally knocks herself silly by doing a double shift at work and coming home to clean deserves your respect and your care. Let’s do this for our mothers, our wives, our sisters and our cousins. Its International women’s month. There is still time. Make a difference all year round!
