SECTOR 2

Scores:
Individual scores:
1

Country does not meet indicator

2

Country minimally meets aspects of the indicator.

3

Country meets many aspects of indicator but
progress may be too recent to judge.

4

Country meets most aspects of indicator.

5

Country meets all aspects of the indicator and has
been doing so over time.

Average score: 			

1.1 (2005 = n/a; 2007 = n/a)

2.7
All media fairly reflect the voices of both women
and men.
Analysis:
Research conducted in 2002 by Gender Links, a southern African nongovernmental organisation, showed that women comprised just 16 per cent of the
news sources in Botswana.15 Panellists felt that little has changed in the past seven
years and that men still dominate in terms of media content.
Generally, there is a lack of representation on women’s issues in the Botswana
media. This could be a result of a number of factors.
Firstly, there is less content about women, possibly because there are few women
journalists in the country. Women are often not interested in
working as journalists as the landscape is considered ‘tough’. Many
“...having female
women choose to go into the ‘softer’ option of public relations
instead. Culturally, in Botswana children are brought up not to be
journalists does
assertive or to question their elders: traditionally women continue
not necessarily
to be more diffident than men about confronting authority.

mean the media
is more ‘gender
focussed’, unless
women become
editors...”

“While having female journalists does not necessarily mean the
media is more ‘gender focussed’, unless women become editors,
they will not be able to decide on the content of the media.”
Secondly, women are less forthcoming than men about
information and very rarely approach the media with ideas for

15 Gender and Media Baseline Study, Gender Links

34

AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER BOTSWANA 2009

Select target paragraph3