In commemoration of International Women’s Day 2024, MCDN acknowledges the need for improvement in the representation and participation of women in the media industry. As recent numbers show, there is a substantial disparity in female representation in media leadership as opposed to their male counterparts.
Balancing the homefront and raising a family with long work hours are among the reasons cited for this problem and experts have recommended enhancing gender inclusivity and empowering women as a way to foster a more diverse and equitable media landscape.
We spoke with two female newsroom leaders, a media executive and a career mentor with years of impact in the Nigerian media ecosystem.
We spoke with the Director of News, TVC Communications Mrs Stella Din-Jacob and Editor, Gist Nigeria and Career Mentor at BBC News, Ms Omotola Aderinsola Adebanjo about the realities of women in the Nigerian media, how to navigate career demands and other social demands, creating support structures and edging out challenges to growth in the industry.
They both shared unique and insightful views on the different questions asked and below are themed summaries of their answers with direct quotes from their responses.
It is tough, tougher than for men! – Adebanjo
Talking about the realities of women in the media sector, both Din-Jacob and Adebanjo affirmed the effects of societal, customs and traditional demands on various aspects of women’s lives and especially on their careers.
Din-Jocob noted “Women have to play a fine balancing act and look after the home front, look after young children, and then try and strike a balance with being in the office to work long hours. So it is very difficult.” Aderinsola Adebanjo also said: “Because women are part of the larger society, so the custom, the tradition that affects women in every area of life, whether they are lawyers, they are media practitioners, whatever they are, affects women”.
According to Din-Jacob, women who seem to be able to persevere at this are those who either have had their children earlier or are having them later.
“Sometimes it appears that these women are not ready to take on those daring challenges that would get them to the very top. And it is for the simple reason that they have families, they have dependents.”
“So the reality of the situation today is more women are coming into this business and fewer are in leadership positions,” she said.
They noted the need for women to always be up to the task of going beyond the norm and rising to challenges with the mindset of possibility and self-confidence and that their career and dreams also matter, beyond being just a woman, a wife, or a mother.
Adebanjo puts it more vividly saying: “I think it is on the women themselves to also see how they can make it work because there are so many women who have done it. It’s tough, tougher than for men! But then whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well”.
A lot has to do with your can-do spirit and your willingness to grow – Din-Jacob
When asked questions about surmounting challenges and navigating career breaks that some female journalists choose to take to cope, both managers stressed the need for continuous upskilling, upholding great personal and professional principles that command respect and leading by example.
Din-Jacob advised continuous self-training to be well-grounded in the needed industry skills.
“I tell women who are in this business to equip themselves with the know-how. Continue to train yourself.
“Do not wait for your organization to send you on training programs, just as you don’t have to be in a classroom to learn when you are sitting down not doing anything, put on your television and flick your remote controls. When you see good television, you know, when you see good journalism, you know.”
She also harps on the need for exceptional personal and professional principles saying: “Ensure that you’re grounded and you do not fall into the category of, if we cannot beat them, join them. It’s better to stand for something than to fall for anything”
“So a lot of it has to do with your can-do spirit and your willingness to grow and your willingness to rise above what it is. But then if you approach a lazy person’s way of life to the job, it means you’re just going to be playing in the minor leagues, and it means you’re not going to grow.”
Adebanjo called the attention of female journalists to the need to change their mindset on the breaks they take in their careers. According to her, some journalists take a break and go into areas like teaching, thinking it is closer to the media sector, whereas it is clearly a different industry.
“That’s the mistake a lot of people make. They think being a journalist and being in the media means being able to speak English. But it’s a lot more than that. There’s an art to how those things are done and there’s a hierarchy.
“It’s just that even journalists themselves do not understand the complexity of their profession. If you leave your job for five or seven years, you cannot come to the same place as your contemporaries who were there for seven years.
“You will have to go and take your cue from some people because they are exceptionally good, and while they are out of the job, so to speak, they try to keep up with the profession by writing articles, by contributing.
“I know somebody who has been in Channels TV for years. She has twins, and so she stopped doing it full-time. She was a contract staff, and she did that for over ten years. She comes, she reads the news, and when she comes in the evening, she doesn’t just read the news, she stays with the editors, she looks at what they are doing and makes the extra effort to keep herself abreast of what’s happening in the newsroom.
“She was not a full-time staff member for over ten years. She did a master’s and PhD in communications. So it’s not a thing about going and just coming back. No.”
Voicing a similar thought on being relevant and beating the competition and challenges in the industry, Din-Jacob said:
“For you to be able to edge yourself ahead of a competition, you must be ready to work extra hard.
You must be ready to continue to invent yourself. It would help if you remembered that you’re only as good as your last performance.
You must also understand that innovations are coming out on a near-daily basis. You blink, you miss it. “
“So if at the end of the day, you do not pay particular attention and put a premium on wanting to grow and wanting to learn and learn properly, then it’s going to be very difficult for you to have an edge, let alone over the competition”
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Journalism creates opportunities for you. And I am not talking about brown envelopes – Adebanjo
On the economic aspect of the job, options available to female journalists for building support structures that will sustain them during economic downtime were explored.
Adebanjo passionately stressed the need for female journalists to look out for themselves more. Aside from stressing the need to marry a spouse who understands the complexity of their job and is ready to support them, she noted the need for journalists to live within their income.
“You can’t be a journalist, your salary is 70,000 or 120,000 and you want to use iPhone 15,” she said.
“And there are other things you can do apart from being a journalist. I make jewelry and it doesn’t affect my work. I find a way to make it all work.
“Journalism is not a profession where you get money to build a house from your salary, it creates opportunities for you one way or the other. And I am not talking about brown envelopes and the like. I am talking about real opportunities.”
Corroborating Adebanjo’s view, Din-Jacob described a journalist as someone who can’t be out of a job.
“A journalist would never be out of work for two reasons. It is either you know how to write or you know how to speak. And either way, these are ways and things you can do to enhance who you are.
“Just as there are so many ways in which younger journalists can tap from your potential, from training to speaking engagements to participating in stuff like running social commentaries,” she opined.
You must come prepared to grow. You must be ready to take the bull by the horns – Din-Jacob
As one of the recommended solutions for a more diverse and female-inclusive media, the two media executives gave tips for positioning for career-advancing opportunities.
They advised women in the media to take more initiative and forgo the laid-back ‘I am a woman, I am disadvantaged’ mentality.
As Din-Jacob puts it: “The only way you’re going to be taken seriously where career advancement opportunities are concerned is if you continue to show that you are developing yourself personally.
“Show everyone that anyone who has entrusted or reposed responsibility in you will not be let down. It’s all about hard work and dedication and keeping at it.
“If you fall, you get up, as opposed to falling and remaining by the wayside and waiting for someone to pick you up. How many times do you want to be picked up? You must know what this business is.
“You must come prepared to grow. You must be ready to take the bull by the horns. You must also show that you are actively trying to better yourself, and you’re trying very hard to show the world that you can do it.”
Adebanjo puts it in her own words saying: “Don’t come out with the old ways mentality in doing your job. Just be a professional. Some people will still come at you and all of that. But in your mind, don’t just be a woman. Be a human first. Be a person who knows what they’re doing, who has integrity, and then a woman.
“When you put your gender forward in every situation, you expose yourself to all kinds of things that you really don’t want.”
Adebanjo also advised on the use of LinkedIn and other social media as a tool for positioning.
She said: “Journalists by default are thought leaders. A journalist isn’t an influencer. You can’t be an influencer!
“Whatever personal branding you’re doing, you have to align with your purpose as a journalist, to inform, to educate and to entertain.
“It must align with the ethics of the profession as well—fairness, hearing all sides. You can’t be biased. Even if you think, oh, it’s your personal space, as a journalist you have no personal space on social media because your business is information. And so when you say something some people believe.”
IWD2024. Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress
Speaking about the theme of the 2024 International Women’s Day: Invest in Women: Accelerate progress, Stella Din-Jacob said:
“Investing in women is a theme that the United Nations has adopted for IWD 2024. But you see, before you decide to invest in someone, that person must also have invested in themselves. I do not believe that an organization owes a journalist, whether female or male, training if that female journalist has not demonstrated that she has the capacity.
“And as I always tell the ladies who I work with, you can do it yourself. Training does not mean sitting down in a classroom. It means you showing that you can learn, you can look at your environment, you can grow, and it is what you invest in yourself that your employers will see and decide that they would want to train you.
“So one of the things I would just encourage media organizations to do is in the employment process and the selection process. Make sure that you’re looking for bright sparks. You don’t have to look for people who have experience. Look for someone intelligent and open-minded.”
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