The African Radio Drama Association, ARDA, on Thursday, trained journalists in Ekiti state on equal reportage of women’s participation in politics as their male counterparts.
The Association engaged journalists across various chapels in the state, on “One-day Training for Media Professionals”, to brainstorm on strategies to facilitate change in the narrative on women in political participation through media.
Speaking with journalists, a Media and Development Communications Professional and an associate of ARDA, Adebisi said the objective of the training was to equip journalists with skills and informed knowledge on increased women’s participation in politics and governance.
According to her, the training, supported by UN Women and the Canadian government, and themed “Representation Matters: How Media Should Portray Women in Political Leadership and Governance in Nigeria” was facilitated to achieve reportage of increased conversations on women’s leadership, to achieve policy policy-making, accountability, equality, balanced democracy, among others in the Nigerian political system.
Her words, “The objective of this media training is to equip media professionals with skills and informed knowledge about how we can through our mediums, traditional and social media, increase women’s participation in politics and governance. This media training was put together by the UN Women, the Canadian government and ARDA Development and Communication Incorporation.
“What we charge the media professionals to do is to change the narrative when talking about women in leadership.
“Whatever measure is been used to measure the male counterpart should also be used to measure the female in leadership position and in politics. We should focus on the issue, we should focus on her ability and capacity.
“What she can do should not be tied to her family name who she is married to or the number of children that she has. If she’s got it we should promote and drive the conversation around what she can do and what she brings to the table”.
She added that the training also seeks to charge men to support women’s participation in leadership positions, by engaging and equipping interested women with the necessary tools to excel in leadership roles.
“One of the things that came out of the training is that we want to increase men’s support for women’s participation in leadership positions, we want to increase the conversation around training, taking it from the grassroots upward.
“Equipping young women who are interested in leadership and governance. We want the media to talk about mentorship opportunities, we want the media to talk about how violence can eventually be taken off our politicking as a nation, and we want the media to increase and generate conversations around women’s leadership.
“Why are we talking about the importance of increasing women’s participation in governance? We Will not achieve a democracy that is meant for all, that is socially accepted.
“That is able to meet the needs of our society when all hands are not on deck. Women and men are in these communities and this nation, therefore, we should have women and men taking on the helms of leadership, working together to promote our democracy, to promote government and leadership that actually meets the needs of the people and we need the two gender on the table,” she added