Amplifying Women's Voices - A Gender Balance Guide for Media

"The media plays a very important role in shaping public opinion, which means that any kind of gender stereotyping, subtle or not, has damaging consequences."

This guide aims to equip media organisations and professionals with tools and insights to increase gender balance in their content. It was produced by Women in News (WIN), a World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) initiative that works to increase women's leadership and voices in the news by equipping women journalists and editors with the skills, strategies, and support networks they need to take on greater leadership positions and editorial influence within the industry.

As stated in the guide, "The media shapes what we think about, what we believe, and what we do. That means the decisions taken by those working in, and leading, the industry are of vital importance. If the media fails to represent women as equals and stereotypes them in their jobs, societal roles and attributes, they perpetuate and reinforce gender inequalities. This applies not just to women, but to trans people, sexuality, race, class, religion and ethnicity."

The resource is specifically designed to help media professionals:

• Appreciate the importance of gender balance in content;
• Recognise the different ways in which the media conveys gender stereotypes;
• Understand how to avoid gender stereotyping;
• Develop organisational strategies to improve gender balance in content;
• Identify suitable metrics and tools to track their progress; and
• Learn from successful initiatives that have been implemented by other news organisations.

It features detailed case studies from organisations that implemented change to improve the representation of women in their content, as well as practical suggestions and examples of organisational strategies that news outlets can follow in order to achieve the same outcome. These are interspersed within the following six sections:

1. Why gender balance is important - looks at the reasons why media organisations and media professionals should be working to increase gender balance in their content.
2. How we stereotype in the media - discusses what it means to "gender stereotype", acknowledging that one needs to understand the problem before one can fix it. Looks at how gender stereotyping can manifest itself in a number of different ways, from the language used to talk about women to the images chosen to depict them.
3. Actions to improve gender balance - offers practical suggestions to improve gender balance in content, such as making women more prominent, including their voices and opinions, avoiding gender stereotyping and sexism, and reporting in ways that appeal to women.
4. Organisational strategies - provides steps that media organisations can take to improve gender balance across their publication's content, including leadership commitment, target setting, and staff training.
5. Tracking gender balance - describes a range of lo-fi and hi-fi approaches and metrics to track gender balance in content.
6. Gender balance champions - highlights examples of initiatives that media around the world are implementing to increase gender balance in their content. This includes a deep dive into two media initiatives.