Women History Month is observed in March of every year. It is during the same month that the world marks International Women's Day. The day is set aside to celebrate women's economic, social, cultural and political achievements.
This year's theme was #breakingthebias. The theme sought to raise awareness against biases against women, call for action for equality and celebrate women who have broken the bias in different fields and ways.
As we come to the end of the month it is important to reflect on the campaigns, research, advocacy and all the other interventions that were put in place during the month and transform these efforts into tangible results. During the month a number of celebrations were held, women and their work profiled, research reports launched and hashtags trended, but what next?
One of the opportunities that we ought to seize is the numerous researches that were launched. Women in News, for example, launched a report highlighting sexual harassment in the media.
According to the report, almost half of the women (47 per cent) had been sexually harassed at work. In Kenya, 30 per cent and 15 per cent of men in media houses experienced verbal and physical sexual harassment at work respectively.
On the other side, 79 per cent of women experienced verbal sexual harassment and 51 per cent physical harassment. These are worrying facts and continue to inhibit women's participation in media spaces. In addition, some media houses lack a sexual harassment policy and those who do have fail to make it known to the journalists.
Additionally, Article 19 launched two survey reports; one on the perception of women human rights defenders and female journalists, and another on existing legal and psychosocial support for women HRDs and female journalists.
The perception survey findings indicate that there is a lack of knowledge of the contribution WHRDs and women journalists make in advancing human rights in Kenya. Despite there being several women journalists and WHRDs in the country, only the well-known TV anchors, journalists and political figures previously associated with human rights are familiar to the public.
Society also appears to view women as only contributing to gender and children’s issues, which are the areas that most women focus on, but not the only ones. Furthermore, women’s work is not as visible as they do not often organise or lead public protests and men continue to be more visible as compared to women.
Concerning societal attitudes towards women journalists and WHRDs, it appears that Kenya is not immune from the generally negative perception. Women journalists and WHRDs are seen as not ‘bold/courageous’ and ‘informed/educative’ enough to do journalistic work or carry out human rights defence. They are also seen as going against cultural norms, religion, family and community values.
Many in Kenya appear to believe that women should be focused on marriage and the family. WHRDs, in particular, face attitudinal barriers because the work of human rights defence is viewed as work for men.
Attitudes of groups and individuals based on religious beliefs also discourage women journalists and WHRDs driven by attitudes of religious leaders. These negative perceptions and attitudinal barriers create an unconducive working environment for women journalists and WHRDs, thus hindering their participation in civic space.
Female journalists and women HRDs play a critical role in expanding the continued shrinking space. Through their work, they promote and protect freedoms and rights enshrined in the Constitution. There is therefore need to ensure that female journalists and women HRDs reap from the campaigns that were initiated during the month.
Lastly, and on the political front, as we head towards an election we need to start pushing for equal representation. This should start in the party primaries and not just during the general election. Political parties should put in place mechanisms to ensure that women and other underrepresented groups form part of their candidates for different political seats.
There is also need to provide incentives to these groups such as waiver of the nomination fees, financial support and enabling environment for all. It is through the above ways and at the party level that we can hope to achieve the two-thirds gender rule as well as representation of other underrepresented groups.
Muthuri Kathure is the Senior Program officer Civic Space at Article 19 Eastern Africa
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