Unequal opportunities: the case of women and the media

215 Pages·2009·10.54 MB·English

by  Gallagher, Margaret

Unequal opportunities
The case of women and the media
Unequal
opportunities
The case of women
and the media
Margaret Gallagher
Unesco
First published in 1981 by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
7 place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris
Printed by Presses Universitaires de France, Vendôme
Second impression 1983
ISBN 92-3-101897-3
© Unesco 1981
Printed in France
Preface
The year 1980 marked the mid-point of the United Nations Decade for
Women. It was also the year in which a review of progress since Inter
national Women's Year was conducted, in the context of the World Con
ference of the Decade, held in Copenhagen in July. As part of this review,
relationships between women and communication media were also
examined.
Early in 1980, Unesco commissioned a book on the portrayal and
participation of women in the media, based upon an international research
survey undertaken over a two-year period. Later in the same year, a
United Nations/Unesco seminar in New York looked specifically at this
issue, with the forum of Copenhagen in mind. There were parallel
activities in a number of countries and regions, and by the end of this
period of concentrated discussion and research, a number of new expe
riences had come to light. At the moment they are fugitive, scattered in
many places, and the purpose of this book is to bring them together, so
as to address a series of basic questions. The questions are these: What
are the issues? What do we know already? What has been done so far?
What remains to be done?
The book, therefore, attempts to relate the findingso f research to the
needs and possibilities for action. Its author carried out the original
Unesco study on the portrayal and participation of women in the media
and participated in most of the major encounters of 1980, including the
Copenhagen conference. In these pages, she has consolidated her work,
to make it available to a wider audience, and has compiled a valuable
reference bibliography. The opinions expressed are, however, her own;
they have been formulated in the light of her experience, and do not
necessarily reflect the views of Unesco or of other agencies within the
international system.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation for permission to
reproduce: Schema for Programme Analysis—Sex Roles in Television
Fiction—developed for the 'Equality Project' 1978; and to Unesco for
permission to adapt material from The Portrayal and Participation of
Women in the Media (CC.79/WS/130); Women and the Cultural Industries
(CC.80/CONF.629/Col.9); Images of Women in the Mass Media (Inter
national Commission for the Study of Communication Problems);
Women, Communication and Development: the Unesco/UNFPA Features
Services on Women and Population (SS. 80/WS/18).
Two Open University colleagues helped in the early stages of the
project on which this book is based. Moira Griffiths carried out extensive
and careful bibliographic searches. Nicola Durbridge's abilities in
languages and skills in criticism gave me ready access to materials in
Dutch, German, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. The Unesco Sec
retariat provided considerable help in terms of contacts, documentation
and general moral support. Literally hundreds of people around the
world supplied me with information and material for the survey which
preceded the book. I am immensely grateful to all of them.
Contents
Part I What are the main issues ? 9
Chapter 1 A question through history 11
2 The status of women and the socio-economic system 13
3 Culture, communication and the production of
meanings 16
4 Specific characteristics of women's relationship to
the communication media 19
5 Patterns of distribution and access 22
6 Women and media: some implications 28
Part II What do we already know? 31
Introduction 33
Chapter 1 The portrayal of women in the mass media 35
2 Participation of women in the mass media
industries 79
3 Portrayal and participation: effects and relationships 105
Part HI What has been done so far ? 113
Introduction 115
Chapter 1 Using mass media for women in development 118
2 Media and the social reality of women 125
3 Alternative strategies for media change 137
4 Mainstream media and alternative distribution
channels: case-study of a women's communication
network 145
Part IV What remains to be done ? 157
Chapter 1 Setting the agenda: some lessons in politics 159
2 Redefinition and revitalization of the issue 164
3 Developing new structures 170
Appendices Sources of reference 177
1 Feminist publications 179
2 Directories and guidebooks 184
3 Seminar proceedings and reports 185
4 Catalogues of women's media 187
5 Groups and organizations 188
6 Format for media analysis 193
References 207
Part I
What are the main issues?
'God adapted women's nature to indoor and man's to outdoor
work. . .. As nature has entrusted woman with guarding the
household supplies, and a timid nature is no disadvantage in
such a job, it has endowed woman with more fear than man. . . .
If anyone goes against the nature given him by God and leaves
his appointed post ... he will be punished.'
Xenophon (c. 430—355 B.C.) The Economist, I, 42 ff.
Chapter 1
A question through history
The 'woman question' has been a perennial question throughout history.
To associate it only with the feminist movements of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries is to ignore the fact that, more notably in some his
torical epochs than in others, it has preoccupied philosophers, social com
mentators and creative writers since earliest times. The issue of women's
position in society was certainly debated publicly in Greece of the fifth
and fourth centuries B.c. Euripides in his tragedies shows an almost femi
nist sympathy for women. The satires of Aristophanes, which make fun
of various aspects of women's condition, nevertheless illustrate the cur
rency of certain 'progressive' ideas, such as women's suffrage, satirized in
the Ecclesiazusae, (Women in Parliament). The Platonic-Aristotelian de
bate on the role of women in society is a further indication of a certain
seething of opinion on the question at that time.
The call to give women a separate definition from that of men has
been a historically persistent demand. That the problem was formulated
at all—as if women somehow had a destiny different from that of men—is
itself revealing. Just as important is the fact that the definitions handed
down through history are those of men, who have been in a position to
impose their analyses and prescriptions, whether intellectual, economic
or political. For there is no doubt that cultural images reflect and pro
mote the values of the powerful. Polemics against women were common,
for example, during the late Middle Ages in Europe. Generally speaking,
the arguments were based on old misogynist themes; woman is cursed
by the sin of Eve, crooked because made from a rib, bestial by nature,
greedy and crafty. The Renaissance and Reformation brought major
shifts in viewpoints and values: 'la querelle des femmes'' (the dispute
about women) became a long-running debate on woman's capabilities.
Erasmus lent his authority to the faint call for education for girls and
women. Castiglione submitted that 'women can understand all the things
men can understand and that the intellect of a woman can penetrate
wherever a man's can' (// Cortegiano). Christine de Pisan, one of the
most learned women of her time and probably the first female voice to
be heard on the question, suggested that if women 'understand less it
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