4.4 Gender mainstreaming is promoted in terms of equal participation of both sexes in the production process. ANALYSIS: Gender imbalance is not a serious problem in the country. Most companies and media houses are equal opportunity employers, with merit being the more important criterion for hiring rather than gender considerations per se. Women are in decision-making positions as owners and/or editors at The Voice, Botswana Gazette and Sunday Tribune. BTV and Radio Botswana also have mostly women in their leadership positions. When it comes to working on the beat, however, female journalists are often disadvantaged because they are not taken seriously by interviewees. Given that very few women feature during journalism awards like those organized by MISA from time to time, the Botswana Media Women’s Association (BOMWA) should be encouraged to make a greater effort to motivate women journalists to come forward and compete more for professional awards. According to a study commissioned by MISA, only two media houses have gender policies in place (Voice and government media). Those that have no official policy claim to have unwritten gender practices and policies. Overall, there are no clear policy frameworks on gender mainstreaming. Organizations like Gender and the Media in Southern Africa (GEMSA) and Gender Links (GL) are active in helping the media to address the situation. SCORES: Individual scores: Average score: 4.5 2, 4, 4, 4, 2, 3, 3, 3 3.1 (2005 = 2.9) Gender mainstreaming is reflected in the editorial content. ANALYSIS: Various studies on the Botswana media such as a 2002 Gender Links study have shown that the editorial content of most media outlets is generally unbalanced, with 84 percent of all sources being male and only 16 percent female. This imbalance is getting worse rather than diminishing. One of the reasons could be that while people generally do not trust the media and its accuracy in coverage, women are even more wary of being misrepresented and therefore tend to refuse to be interviewed. There is a strong cultural component to this as women perceive themselves as more vulnerable and not liberated enough even though they may have climbed up the corporate ladder. Many women in high positions will rather delegate a requested interview to a male colleague. Journalists need to make a deliberate effort to seek out women and get their voices heard. Another reason for the imbalance is that news coverage is often merely event rather than issue driven, and that gender topics could be better addressed in issue driven stories. So This Is Democracy? 2007 -168- Media Institute of Southern Africa