Week Three: Interactive radio and gender

Archived English Discussions Interactive Radio
#1

Hello everyone,

I hope you had a great weekend. We are in the third week of our e-discussion. Welcome to those who have just joined us.

Last week we discussed your understanding of interactive radio and we got a lot of wonderful contributions and some examples we can learn from. This week will look at how to involve women in programs.

The following questions will guide you in your contributions:

  1. Are there challenges women face in being able to interact or participate in radio programs?
  2. Are there other groups in your area that don’t have the same opportunity to participate in programs?
  3. What are ways that broadcasters can help people that are normally left out be able to participate?

Please take a minute to read the following resource:
103-10 How to serve your women farmers well.docx (57.3 KB)
“How to serve women farmers well”.

You might also want to read the other resources here

We also want to remind you to suggest what approaches or topics on interactive radio you want to learn more about. Post your ideas here. This will be addressed next week.

Enjoy your week!

Learning list of interactive approaches and tools
#2

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#3

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#4
#5

In my opinion, women are the better implementors of policies through the information they gather. But most of our radio broadcast, though have women as their target audience, are not able to meet this audience by way of being interactive.

I attribute this to the fact that during these programs, you would find more females either on their farms or busy with household chores and other things.

I have also observed that more males are able to get through to the studio telephone when it is activated than women. Some people (males) I talked to revealed that they have a way of doing it (i.e. getting through to studio lines during programs)

To the problems stated above, I recommend that:

  1. the programs should be broadcast at times when women would be less busy (a research should be done to come out with the time since this is relative to communities)

  2. there should be contact (phone) lines for only women (only women should use that line)

  3. in areas where there is no access to internet or telephone, women could be interviewed on various topics to be aired. We should also make sure to air these responses. This would whip up their interest to contribute.

Thank you.

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#6

Hello @obolo

Thank you for being the first to respond. Somehow I was hoping to get a woman to contribute first since there is a question specifically asking about women participation.

You have said this:

The question I have is what exactly is the right time? When are women less busy? Could this be the real cause of non participation by women? Are there other factors to this, may be cultural issues etc?

#7

You know there are different approaches in reaching out to rural women and urban women. Every program has its specific audience and though the major target audience is women, it could further be lowered down by using age, the level of education, the topic being discussed, etc.

So a research should be done for a program to effectively reach its target audience.

As I said earlier this question can only be answered by going to the various communities (urban and rural) and asking them the questions you have raised.

In Ghana, I have not heard about any cultural practice which forbids women from listening and subsequently calling into radio shows.

You have asked a very practical question, we cannot sit in the comfort of our offices and homes and answer. This can only be answered by someone who has worked on this.

We can only speculate.

#8

My experience is that most women do listen to radios and I agree with Obolo that we women are the best implementers of the many policies because in many countries, women form the biggest number of the population.
However they have limitations to why they do not take a lead in debating, or calling in during talk shows. One of them is income related where you find women without money to buy airtime to make calls and give a a contribution while others have to seek for their husbands permission to take part in such debate. Many are still hindered by cultural related issues.
Thanks

1 Like
#9

Community Radio plays a crucial role in empowering local communities and in particular the vulnerable or the marginalized groups.

Participation of women in a community radio is key on several fronts. But due to some cultural beliefs women are not allowed to speak at a meeting where there are chiefs, father in-law according to their culture.
Because of this most women do not participate in the program.

The other challenge that I have observed is that men as it is are the heads of the family, have more control over women. The radio set is for the husband and access to radio sometimes is a challenge, but it is has been observed as of late Tuntufye FM has a women Program (Phone in program). Here more women will be able to listen and participate.
Despite cultural and social economic barriers women are increasingly showing they have something important to contribute to the national discourse and to their local public sphere. Though male sometimes do dominate and carries traditional stereotypes.

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#10

Hello @Ephraim @hpmafaranga

It seems there are different reasons why women fail to contribute in radio programs. Hope you say sometime women do not have airtime to make calls, while Ephraim talks of cultural issues where women cannot speak in meetings where there are chiefs and men. How can radio stations work around this? Is there any other way that they can accommodate women without women?

#11

Busi,
Yes there is a way. I was going through this document HOW TO SERVE WOMEN FARMERS WELL, it gives me an insight like taking action to correct gender bias or discrimination in order to ensure gender equality and gender equity.It means that gender considerations will guide how programs are designed,that women’s and men’s specific needs and interests will be addressed, that stereotypes will be challenged, and that gender equality will be promoted.
We need to encourage them to speak as well.

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#12

The existence of the Community Radio is the key as it plays the role of bridging the gap of information between the ruler and the ruled. It also helps to empower the local communities by running programs that addresses the problems/challenges of the rural dwellers in their local language/dialect.

Women’s participation in a discuss is very important to the socioeconomic development of an area but the major challenge(s) they face is culture and tradition which keeps most women in a subservient position as people that can only be seen but not heard from especially in social gathering such as a meeting where only the Community heads and some elders who are only men are allowed to speak and convene such gathering.

In my Radio Station UNIZIK FM, we are very much aware of this and that’s why we developed a program termed “WOMEN’ CIRCLE” that runs twice a week Thursday (5-6pm) and Saturday (8-9am), this program which is interactive accommodates women of all age and sect. We get their views via SMS, PHONE IN and SOCIAL MEDIA (for the few of them who are ICT Compliant). I can tell you that the reception, awareness and participation we get during the course of the program has been tremendous and amazing that the Management of my Radio had to increase the allotted time for the program from 30 minutes to 1 hour. I also make bold to say that the women are beginning to participate in Community discuss as a result of the effect of this program , Furthermore the program has helped the Male folk who also listens to understand the fact that their Mothers, Wives, Sisters and Daughters play a crucial role in Community Development and that the few roles they were assigned to carry out for their Community they discharged the duties to the best of their abilities better than the male folks in most cases.

#13

Hello @ikenna1

I am happy that your station accommodate women like that. Women feel more comfortable in their own space. They would contribute more in programs that speak directly to their needs. That is a first step to victory because once they get used to that, there is no reason why they cannot make their mark in male dominated spheres. Take for instance farmer issues, they affect both men and women. How can radio make sure that women participate effectively?

@obolo and @hpmafaranga mentioned about reaching women at certain hours. I was reading a research report on a comparative study across three West African countries (Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea) to explore the current intersection between radio, gender and information communication technologies (ICT). The research examines whether recent improvements in radio broadcast coverage and SMS technology are increasing women’s access to information and providing them with a platform that adequately meets their needs.

About women participation in radio programs this is what they discovered:
“To meet women’s interests in the most effective way, not only are broadcast hours important, but also getting more women’s voices on the radio. Women feel more “courage” to participate when they hear other women on a public platform. At the moment, there are too few women in radio (in some stations even the women’s programme was presented by a man). Women stated that even the best-trained men could not transmit in a way that women were able to receive well. While women have a vested interest Community Radio, Gender & ICTs in West Africa, in areas such as economics and politics, they often don’t chose to listen or participate in related radio programmes as they are dominated by male experts and male opinions. It is not only a question of more female presenters, but soliciting the voices and opinions of ordinary women during programmes. Radio stations need to reach out to their community and enable even the most marginalised women to have a say”.

You can read more about this research here

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#14

I feel that women are good implementors of projects and given an opportunity to do things following radio programs they are always hundred percent willing.However to answer the above questions i would say
1.women are see themselves as being the voiceless.They tend to be shy when a reporter approaches them.They are sometimes not sure if what they will say will make sense yet its always helpful.when there are men around and they arw not given a chance to speak men tend to take away the platform from them.And lastly when they have been given resources to be used in programs for exanple now that farmers have access to phones in listening groups which are given to them by organisations for example farm radio,men wants to have custody of those resources than women.

2.I think every one has the opportunity but the other groups of people are just not willing to participate because they think its not useful.

3.I think conducting research on the needs of the people around to see what really stops them from participating,conducting awareness campains through village leaders on how important such participation can be for the change of women lives and then valueing them when recording programs to encourage them.

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#15

Just to add our farmer program has a segment called her farm radio where women are able to participate in discussions on different topics that matters in their day to day activities and how climate change has affected them.they arw able to give feedback on what they think can be done to change such situations through farming by empowering themselves and other women while at the same time caring for their families with no stress of climate change or food insecurity

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#16

@Busi_Ngcebetsha - I’m really enjoying the research work you shared. They are able to give specifics because they were on the ground and part of the interaction.

We all need to read this. We can even discuss it later.

1 Like
#17

Hello @Rashidah

I agree some women can be shy and not feel comfortable voicing out their opinions but there are those who can stand for what they believe in and have no issues sharing their views on any given subject. Sometimes women get shy if they cannot identify with the presenter (in a radio station setting). They would fell more comfortable if they interact with another woman. One station saw a difference in women participation when they decided to have two presenters co-hosting for certain programs. They decided on having a man and a woman, More women listeners started contributing in discussions. This helped even after the woman presenter was no longer available, women had already gained the confidence to participate.

One other way to encourage women to participate is to have facilitated listener groups. These could be for women only at first so they can gain confidence and then have mixed groups.

#18

@Rashidah how did you get to this point? Please share to assist others to get more women participating.

#19

It is an eye opener indeed @obolo

“Women are listening to radio, but radio stations are not listening to women. Radio is failing to meet the needs of women in their communities despite the belief from radio station staff that they are. Women’s concerns and interests are insufficiently being taken into account in radio station programming. And yet the demand is great; when asked what kind of radio programming women prefer, they overwhelmingly cited women’s programming tailored to their needs. The time slot during which women are able to listen is also clear. Women of all ages prefer to listen to the radio after 6pm. Radio stations should thus take these listenership habits into account when defining their programme schedules if they truly intend to engage with women listeners…”

This is taken from the research document. Preferred time slot may differ from area to area depending on availability. It is important to do some form of audience research to be able to cater for your target.

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#20

Gender
How to involve women in programs.
As radio presenters we should put in mind of formulating programs that aim at addressing women issues and involvement.
and these should include issues that directly affect women like income generation activities, .
reproductive health self dependence
presenters can as well do rural out react programs. by this presenters can reach out to women in communities to seek their views , ,and by gathering such information , can be used in the programs to make their voices heard and shared with others.
women too face challenges in participating into radio programs , this comes as result of not having total owner ship of some of the house hold items like phones and radios and even when they do there is always competition for such items a man prefers to listen to foot ball , and a woman to anther , but since a man has more say and powers he takes the day.
but this comes as a result of women not involving in income gaining activities and not having financial control at home , they do work that is not paid for , or after involving in such activities men own up every thing. so programs should involve addressing owner ship and control.
yes there are many groups that still lack a radio voice like the disabled and children among others.
however such group require programs that directly focus on their needs . as well as out reaching them in their localities . ,