EIGE and SOCIETY

Building a Conversation

JCM Budapest, 2011 03 08

EIGE – THE VISIONMaking equality between women and men a reality for all Europeans and

beyond

To become the competence centre in the area of gender equality in Europe

Consolidate the efforts in collecting knowledge, sharing experience and hosting expertise on equality between women and men.

THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTE FOR GENDER EQUALITY WILL STRIVEto become the European competence centre on gender equality issues.

EIGE – OVERALL OBJECTIVES

“…to contribute to and strengthen the

promotion of gender equality including

gender mainstreaming in all

Community policies and the resulting

national policies, and the fight against

discrimination based on sex, and to

raise EU citizens’ awareness of gender

equality…”

Beijing Indicators

EU Gender Equality

Index

Gender Mainstreaming

Good Practices

Resource center

EIGE – REACHING THE PUBLICS

STAKEHOLDERS

LEGISLATORS

SOCIETY

EU NATIONAL

EU NATIONAL

EU NATIONAL

THE MEDIA

DIFEERENT CULTURES

DIFFERENT STEREOTYPES

“Europe According to France” - http://bumbumbum.me/tag/mapping-stereotypes/

WHICH COMMUNICATION STRATEGY WE CHOOSE?

1. Research gender issues and discuss with society.

2. Analyze and break gender stereotypes.

3. Build bridges between legislators and stakeholders.

Structure of our meeting

• GENDER STEREOTYPES AND COMMUNICATION– Insights/Facts:

• Gender stereotypes in media– Discussion:

• The role of EIGE in communication with society through media

• SOCIAL MEDIA– Insights/Facts:

• Social Media as a new medium– Discussion:

• The role of Social Media in a work of “traditional” media

GENDER STEREOTYPES IN MEDIA

STEREOTYPE, AS WE KNOW IT

It‘s bad luck to have women on board…

STEREOTYPE: BUSTED

Jessica Watson set out to become the youngest person to sail solo non-stop and unassisted around the World, 2010.

Gintarė Scheidt is an Olympic medal-winning dinghy sailor from Lithuania 2008.

II place in “Lazer Radio” championship, Brazil, 2010.

So what about the luck, captain Jack Sparrow?

GENESIS• The term STEREOTYPE derives from the Greek words στερεός (stereos),

"firm, solid" and τύπος (typos), "impression,” hence "solid impression".

• In modern psychology term was first used by Walter Lippmann in his 1922 work Public Opinion.

• A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. Stereotypes are simplifications, of social origin, subjective, being transmitted from generation to generation. They justify our behavior and the social system.

• Gender stereotypes are: Gender role, Masculinity, Femininity, Gender differences, etc.

GENDER ROLE• Gender Role stereotypes are based on Feminine archetypes – unlearned

tendencies and a part of collective unconscious. • The main Feminine archetypes, introduced by Carl Jung are patterns of

behavior that follow the biological life cycle of the woman and fall into the following roles:

Old Archetype Modern Stereotype MAIDEN MAID

QUEEN SEX-BOMB

MOTHER BREAST-FEEDER

CRONE HARPY

WHY DO STEREOTYPES ARISE?

1. High professional qualification is important only for the man; 2. Housekeeping is the primary function of the woman;3. The workplace, career, and profesional advances is no the primary area of women;4. In case of conflict, man has the last say; 5. Woman takes care of the largest part of child care functions.

GENDER STEREOTYPES IN MEDIA• WOMEN AND DECISION MAKING IN THE MEDIA:

– In relation to the media sector, women are quite present in general

– But they are seriously under-represented in decision-making in this sector as in most others:

• in 2000, there were 9.3% women in top management positions in the telecommunications industry in the EU and European Economic Area

• only 3% of women journalists were in decision-making positions

GENDER STEREOTYPES IN MEDIA• WOMAN AS MEDIA PROFESSIONALS AND EXPERTS:

– Discrimination at the stage of recruitment, a pay gap averaging 18% in the EU, more precarious conditions of employment and the existence of a glass ceiling.

– Women are often valued for their looks, being far more likely to be presenters than reporters, especially when they are young:

• whereas women represent 79% of presenters up to the age of 34. • their presence drops to just 7% in the 50-64 age-bracket. • Underrepresented as reporters, especially in newspapers, they are more often

assigned to local news as well as to social issues, health and education.

– Women make up only 19% of experts and 18% of spokespersons in the news. – In 2005 only 23% of the persons in the national TV News were women under

the European average of 30 to 35% of female participants in TV programs*. – Only 14% of experts appearing in the Journal were women.

* A Luxembourg study about fair portrayal of men and women in the media in 2005

GENDER STEREOTYPES IN MEDIA• THE IMAGE AND VISIBILITY OF WOMEN GIVEN BY THE MEDIA IN

GENERAL:– Today’s social changes make it an evidence that the traditional role model

associated with women is no longer appropriate and realistic as real life is showing more and more active women playing a lead role in society, however:

• In relation to the content of news items, the persistence of journalistic routine make women relatively invisible in the news media, only a slight rise in the number of female subjects in the news since 2005 till 2010 is seen (from 21% to 24 %)*.

– Women are almost as often "popular opinion sources" as men, but this is not the case when “expert sources” are taken into account.

• In Europe women are central to a news story only 10% of the time, a figure that has not changed since 2000 and is half the US rate.

– This low representation of women goes beyond the news: only 32% of main TV characters are female.

• Only 10% of European politicians in the news are female (global average is 12%) and is often below the percentage of women politicians. In Italy and Portugal, women represent only 2% of politicians in the news.

* Global Media Monitoring Project 2010

DISCUSSIONThe role of EIGE in communication with society through

media

• TOPICS:

– Stereotypes, women in decision making, pay gap – what is the situation in your country (how you see it)?

– What kind of module can be developed between media and EIGE?

– In what way target groups could/should be informed?

– Can media partnerships be build between EIGE and media?

– What could encourage media to pay more attention to gender equality issues (awards/prices for activity, specific projects/campaigns, etc.)?

TTHANK YOU!

Tomas Staniulis,Communication consultant

VRP | Hill & Knowltontomas@vrp.lt