[Brussels, 8 May 2015] Did you know that only 16% of photos in European newspaper show women over 45 years of age (according to the project “You can’t be what you can’t see”). In the EU, women account for only 24% of people that we hear or read about in the news. Moreover, while men are asked to speak as experts, women continue to be considered as victims or readers or watchers belonging to the general public.
In May, the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) focuses on Women and the Economy, as part of its Beijing+20 campaign. Read and share EWL’s factsheet about Women and the Media, as a part of EWL report “From words to action” with our key demands to the European Union and the Member States. Follow our website and social media to find out what we are doing this month to raise awareness on Women and the Media!
All EWL members mobilise throughout Europe to make 2015 a critical year towards the realisation of all commitments of the Beijing Platform for Action. Women and girls rights cannot wait 20 more years to enjoy their full women’s rights! Watch our members delivering EWL key messages for Beijing+20 in the video “From words to action ”.
Women and the media in the EU – our demands
- Prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex/gender in the area of media and education.
- Fully mainstream gender equality and women’s rights into all European policies and programmes related to the media and information society, including the communication tools of the European institutions and agencies.
- Develop, fund and encourage training programmes on women’s rights, anti-discrimination and gender stereotypes for media professionals.
- Create a European Media Monitoring Group with a specific gender equality branch to fight gender stereotyping and misrepresentation of women.
- Promote more diversity in female role models and the way women are portrayed in the media, and a diversified and realistic picture of the skills and the potential of women in society, as well as of the diversity of women’s identities.
- Introduce a code of conduct for journalist which stresses gender equality.
- Develop research and comparable data on women and the media, and databases with expert women, from diverse backgrounds and identities.
- Create awareness campaigns for children and young people, to prevent stereotypes in cartoons, cyber harassment, and promote positive images.
- Follow-up concretely on the 1997 European Parliament Resolution calling for the prohibition of all forms of pornography in the media, as well as the advertising of sex tourism.
Find here the full report Beijing, 20 years later – From words to Action
