Female journalists have been advised to be passionate and mentally resilient to assume leadership positions in the workplace.
The Executive Director of LightRay Media, Ms Ejiro Umukoro, gave the advise in Port Harcourt during a virtual leadership summit it organised for female journalists in Rivers.
Umukoro said that the event, tagged “LightRay for 100 Women in Media, Virtual Leadership Summit”, was to empower and position women in journalism to aspire for leadership positions in the Newsroom and other management positions.
She said that the training was supported by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Billinda Gates Foundation and the Report Women Initiative.
She urged female journalists to develop mental, and emotional resilience and deliberately seek women as expert sources of news stories.
She urged them to develop and implement gender policies within their Newsrooms and organisations, make case for their story ideas and not discriminate against themselves among their male counterparts.
A Human Resource Expert and Personal Development Coach, Mrs Stella Obialor, also spoke on the topic “Overcoming career obstacles – Navigating challenges and roadblocks”.
Obialor said that the statistics of gender disparity reduced the percentage of women in leadership roles to 27 per cent in workplaces.
She listed some disparities in economic participation and opportunities, educational attainment, health and survival as well as political empowerment.
She also identified unequal opportunities for assignments for female journalists as one of the gender biases in the media.
Obialor, therefore, urged female journalists to build a strong network, develop skills and expertise to keep them on their jobs, be confident, seek leadership opportunities, perseverance and resilience.
She advised women in journalism to seek mentorship and sponsorship, support other women, and have training and work-life integration.
Managing Editor Daily Trust, Mrs Stella Iyaji, who spoke on “Politics and Gender Mainstreaming Advocacy,” urged women journalists to show interest in politics and discuss politics like their male counterparts in the Newsroom.
Iyaji charged women in Newsroom to always come to the table ready to work and take strong tasks and quit the victim attitude of men being chosen for better and tougher positions due to some women’s inability to deliver quality jobs.
She also advised female journalists to be ready with passion and patience to learn under their mentors draw their chairs to the table and work together with their male counterparts in the Newsroom.
The Executive Director of Goldapples, Mr Ayo Makinde, who is a Communications expert, while speaking on “Communication, Career Advancement and Corporate Affairs”, advised female journalists to always write quality stories that could make front pages.
According to Makinde, how you pitch your story and present the title matters, you need skills to communicate and make a quality story.
“Let everybody know what you stand for, no ethnic or religious sentiment should be attached to your communication.
“Be confident, be respectful and open-minded,” Makinde said.
NAN