#BreakTheBias on International Women's Day
Addressing gender biases in journalism and tech in Indonesia, India, Ecuador, Kenya and more.
Hey Checklisters,
This week we are pleased to bring you a special issue of The Checklist that marks International Women’s Day (IWD). The IWD theme this year is #BreakTheBias. In keeping with the theme, Meedan’s partners and team members bring you highlights of work, projects and reports that raise awareness on biases and stereotypes faced by women in different regions.
Biases and discrimination continue to persist against women in the field of technology. The lack of access to information and digital skills often result in the gross underrepresentation of women in technology. Our partners Magdalene in Indonesia and Chambal Media in India, both feminist newsrooms, take a look at how technology can exacerbate gender stereotypes and also highlight the role of women in non-traditional jobs. Digital Rights Foundation, our partner in Pakistan, takes a deep dive into the issue of gendered disinformation in their report ‘Locating Gender in the Disinformation Landscape’. The research, launched on International Women’s Day, looks at how gendered disinformation has emerged as one of the latest strategies being employed to silence women’s voices. In Subsaharan Africa, our partner the Africa Women Journalism Project (AWJP) reflects on the journey of women journalists. AWJP’s network of female journalists has worked to amplify the voices of women in under-reported areas through stories on health and other development issues. Chicas Poderosas, our partner in Latin America, launched a project in early 2021, called Powerful Stories Lab, which aims to form collaborative teams of journalists, communicators, and activists to tell stories about their communities and realities during pandemic times, with a focus on how this historical moment impacts the lives of women, LGBTTQI+ people, racialized populations, and dissident lives in general.
At Meedan, our team looks at the issue of gendered health misinformation on International Women’s Day, and we reflect on why it is an equity problem and an issue of concern for everyone.
If there are updates you would like us to share from your country or region, please reach out to us at checklist@meedan.com.
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The latest top stories
The Big Elephant in STEM: Women Representation and Biased Products (Magdalene)
In Indonesia, a documentary titled Indonesian Women and Technology (2015), showed that girls in vocational STEM-based high schools only accounted for two percent according to data from the Education and Culture Center for Data and Statistics. The Straits Times reported in 2015 that only four out of every 10 vocational high school students in Indonesia were girls.
“The application to monitor the menstruation of women was made by many men….In their bias, the monitoring technology is prioritized for conceiving, ovulation period. The thing is, not every woman wants to be or can be pregnant. So, this application was made with the assumption that willing or not, women will eventually become pregnant, instead of being designed to monitor women’s reproductive health.” — Dhyta Caturani, a feminist and a digital security activist
Perspectives on Gendered Disinformation (Digital Rights Foundation)
Gendered disinformation makes use of sexual or misogynistic narratives against women which perpetuate a negative representation of women in society as either adversaries or victims. The goal of these campaigns, especially in targeting women politicians, journalists or public figures, is to question their credibility, polarize their audience, and push them away from positions of power. In some cases, disinformation campaigns seek to undermine feminist movements at large.
“The nature and impact of gender disinformation are highly contextual, and unless voices from those contexts are not heard we cannot arrive at a truly intersectional understanding of gender disinformation.” — Digital Rights Foundation
Yantrika Garages from Indore: Women-owned and operated two-wheeler repairing and servicing workshops (Chambal Media)
In Indore, a small town in India, Yantrika Garage employs women for repair and servicing of motorbikes, a profession that is traditionally managed by men. This garage is run entirely by women who have been trained in the profession. The work gives the women mechanics a sense of independence and self-respect.
“My daughter tells her friends and their brothers, “bring your bikes to my mother’s garage”. At school she proudly tells everyone - my mother is a mechanic, she repairs vehicles.” — Saroj Rawat, mechanic at Yantrika Garages
Everything you need to know about the Laboratory of Powerful Stories (Chicas Poderosas)
Laboratorio de Historias Poderosas or the Powerful Stories Lab, launched by Chicas Poderosas, is a space for creation and learning in the community, to tell stories about underrepresented issues, with a gender and diversity perspective and a rights approach. The pandemic did not make it possible for the almost 100 people involved in the project to meet each other, but it made it possible for the project to cross borders, being carried out in 4 different countries - Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico.
Isabel González Ramírez, editor of Lab Ecuador shares that throughout this project, the myriad of perspectives meant that conflicting voices were being heard and it was during those times of collectively listening to each other that they would reach the limits of their own understanding of what was mapped on a subject, this served as incentive to explore.
Carolina Mella, a journalist in the same project brings attention to the need for in depth reporting on gender issues in order to not to make it about numbers and statistics, but about women’s complex lives. She shares that the main challenges when reporting on femicide is staying passive as well as building these narratives in a professional manner.
Learning to put women front and centre of my reporting (Africa Women Journalism Project)
International Women’s Day is a chance for everyone, regardless of gender, to come together and emphasize the importance of equal rights for women. For the Africa Women Journalism Project, the day is a chance to reflect on how far women journalists have come and how far we still have to go to achieve gender equity and equality in who is reported, how they are reported, and who does the reporting.
We cannot afford to wait 67 years for the average global gender equality gap in news media content to be closed. Similarly, news organizations cannot afford to disregard the requirements of their female readers even as they seek new and sustainable revenue models. The AWJP believes there is an economic case to be made for more focused, nuanced reporting about, for, and by women.
“In a globalised world, there is no way of escaping from the fact that everything is increasingly interconnected. And our experiences are becoming more and more homogenous. As it is with solutions journalism, we can all learn something from each other - both as a story angle and as a general concept. Journalists must break away from the suspicion and jealousy they have and share knowledge.” — Justina Asishana, AWJP Fellow
What’s new at Meedan
What is gendered health misinformation and why is it an equity problem worth fighting?
Gendered misinformation, and particularly gendered health misinformation, is an emerging concept that requires more research and refinement centered on those most impacted. We’re looking forward to diving into these claims further in future research, and shedding light on the ways that gendered health misinformation both harms and serves to uphold patriarchal values. Doing so is one small part of our own commitment to break the bias not only on International Women’s Day, but every day.