Media and Gender in Asia-Pacific – UNESCO/UN Women

Across the Asia-Pacific region, women are still significantly underrepresented in the media, where men continue to dominate the top positions and hard news reporting jobs. In order to accurately inform the debate on gender equality in the media and formulate concrete actions that relevant stakeholders in the region can take to improve the situation, and as a follow-up to the Global Forum on Media and Gender that took place in Bangkok in 2013, UNESCO and UN Women have partnered with the International Federation of Journalists Asia-Pacific (IFJ) to conduct a Research Study on Media and Gender in Asia-Pacific. Building on IFJ’s earlier research in this area, the study will look at a sample of countries in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan), South East Asia (Malaysia, Cambodia) and the Pacific (Vanuatu). The study is guided by UNESCO’s Gender Sensitive Indicators for the Media and will use a combination of country-based surveys, media content analysis and case studies to gather data in areas such as the situation of women in the media; the number of women in senior, decision-making positions and the issues affecting this representation; the role that unions, associations and women´s networks could and do play and expectations of their actions; and best practice case studies of campaigns, media workplaces as well as coverage and representation of women.