Every March 8, the International Women’s Day is celebrated globally. This year is no different! To mark the day, Chiemelie Ezeobi and Mary Nnah profile some amazons in the newsroom across Nigeria who operate behind the scene in churning out news, changing the narrative and above all, touching lives with reports in their respective beats. Day-in, day-out, these crop of fearless female journalists brave the odds to get news worthy stories notwithstanding the challenges as they multitask in being reporters, gate keepers, and in some cases, successfully manage the home front as wives and mothers, including the career templates.
Although most journalism and mass communication institutions in Nigeria are dominated by females, the flip side is that the males dominate the field of practice. It is not out of place, therefore, to conclude that gender imbalance exists in mass communication education and practice. While the imbalance in education tends to favour females, the imbalance in the field of practice tends to favour the male.
It is therefore not surprising that females who practice are faced with numerous challenges, from sexism to prejudice, stereotype, conscious bias, discrimination and gender misrepresentation etc.
That notwithstanding, women in journalism have evolved from being relegated to beats like fashion and religion to heading crime, politics and even energy desks. In some cases, some women have even becomes editors of papers and managing directors of television houses, case in point- Ijeoma Nwogwugwu who edited THISDAY Newspaper before moving over to Arise TV News Channel, Africa as the managing director. Read more