As the world’s women’s day gets close, the Uganda Media Women Association (UMWA) launched a women’s month with an aim of opening up against Gender equality.
UMWA organised a dialogue with an aim of meeting to reflect on the unfinished business and how to provide appropriate coverage on gender issues.
During the dialogue at hotel Africana, UMWA, being led by its Executive Director Margret Sentamu discussed means of bringing out women voices through calling upon the media to balance their stories with both women and men’s voices for balanced reporting and fighting against Gender inequality.
Mrs Sentamu noted that women’s day doesn’t necessarily mean men cooking for their wives but it means looking at the challenges and achievements that women go through and to check if the media fulfills their roles as far as writing stories concerning gender equality is concerned.
She added that government committed that by 2023, women will have been led to a development plan which has not yet been fulfilled calling for immediate attention and called upon government to include the gender studies at Universities and institutes so that students graduate with a broader idea about gender.
UMWA board Chairperson Patricia Litho expressed the need for women and men to understand each one’s role. Patricia noted that as we continue commemorating the world’s women’s day, women continue to be marginalized and called upon media owners, government stakeholders, and other parties to take action against Gender inequality.
The UMWA Programs Officer Joan Nankya revealed that in abid to promote gender equality, UMWA has trained female journalists on responsive reporting and teach them how to deliberately include more women in their content.
The communications and Advocacy officer at UMWA Brenda Namata expressed that addressing gender equality is all stake holder’s call to work, and therefore called upon civil society, academic development partners and government to come together and fight gender inequality so that women can be given a comfortable space.
Meanwhile, the forum for women in democracy Patricia Munaabi noted that it is important to engage both men and boys in issues concerning gender since they are directly involved.
However, Dick Nvule, editor at radio Simba challenged women to try as much as they can to come out to air their voices but not to wait to be called as this will motivate the media to consider them. He as well called upon women to porta themselves as important people in societies to attract attention.
Further more, the chief guest during the dialogue, the senior
Program advisor at the Danish Embassy in Uganda Frederick Kawooya stressed that 56% of women in Uganda still suffer physical violence by their spouses and showed a need for consistent enforcement against Gender inequality since vision 2040 prioritises gender equality.
UMWA is set to carryout different activities throughout the women’s month as away of bringing out women voices such as a 2 months survey to monitor online violence against women, a 2 day entrepreneurship training aimed at equipping journalists with entrepreneur skills, a community event organised by Mama fm pioneers, women and media symposium, training sessions on online safety, and the media debate.
The forum was under the theme: Road to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Reflecting on the Unfinished Business” focused on the crucial role the media plays in shaping narratives and driving societal change.
