Serious
role models come before gender
From NEWS LETTER July 15th, 1999
Ms Breen makes the fair point that a minority of female election candidates
responded to a NIWEP questionnaire on election coverage. But this hardly
damns the whole report, the backbone of which concerns the newspapers themselves.
The study itself advocates caution in the interpretation of the Westminster
candidates' responses because of the numbers involved.
NIWEP did contact all the parties and wrote to each candidate twice. Perhaps
those who did not return their surveys were too busy with energetic and
newsworthy activities. Of course, the press is not the only player involved,
as Mr Martin and Ms Breen rightly point out, noting the lack of women in
winnable constituencies. The report also points to the role parties must
play in shifting the image of politics as a man's game.
It also offers a set of recommendations for how political parties can help
raise the profiles of their active women. As Bronagh Hinds states, in her
preface to the study, the goal was not to 'name and shame' but to open up
debate and dialogue, to offer suggestions for future action and to provide
detailed information on the type of coverage given to women by different
papers.
The report also includes positive examples of journalism that takes issue
with sexism in politics such as Suzanne Breen's criticism of media preoccupation
with Mo Mowlam's appearance and News Letter articles on EOC (NI) campaigns
to make gender equality an election issue.
Politicians will not, and should not, get elected simply because they are
women. Nor should they get media coverage on that basis. Mr Martin is right
to say 'not all women in politics are the same', as any woman involved in
party politics can attest. But, as much as we believe that the gender of
our politicians should be irrelevant, we are unfortunately not there yet.
Gender will not become a non-issue by pretending it is already irrelevant
and the cream will simply rise to the top. Until women fill half of elected
seats, gender discrimination will be an issue. The press cannot be expected
to solve society's problems, but it can play an important role for better
or worse. |
