October 8, 2024
By Rehan Piracha
LAHORE:
A survey reveals that there is a large and unchecked gender pay gap in Pakistan’s media organisations, as 50 percent of female journalists are given no clarity about their salaries, perks, and conditionalities listed in their employment contracts. This was seen in the results of a mapping survey on media organizations carried out by the Women Media Forum Pakistan (WFMP).
The women’s network covered 18 media organisations in the second phase of its mapping survey across the country. In the first phase last year, gender equality was evaluated at 15 Pakistani news media organisations that are operating head offices or bureaus in Islamabad. Rashida Shoaib, coordinator of WFMP, says that the initial findings of the second phase of mapping results reveal that many serious and important issues women face in the media remain unaddressed.
“For instance, the mapping found that many media outlets had no washrooms at all, while some did not have separate toilets for women,” she told Voicepk. ” The lack of washrooms has caused many health issues in the women workers, pushing many to quit the media industry altogether.”
She also spoke about the other important issue highlighted in the survey, that is, the issue of gender pay gap and of maternity leave.
“Our mapping has discovered that 25% of the women journalists in the country do not know about their basic right to a maternity leave under the law,” said Shoaib. “We also found that 50% of journalists (women) in newsrooms were not even clear about their salary structure offered by the management of their media organisations. “The lack of clarity about their employment terms has led to the gender pay gap going unchecked,” she added.
Fauzia Kalsoom Rana, founder of the Women Journalists Association of Pakistan (WJAP), voiced her concern at the current levels of women’s representation at news organisations and the structural inequalities resulting from policies and practices that discourage women’s participation in the news industry. She said the WJAP and Freedom Network Pakistan had conducted a gender audit of 15 media outlets with offices in Islamabad.
“The women journalists at the 15 news outlets comprised only 11% of the total employed journalists,” she told Voicepk. Around 75% of the audited media outlets had no woman journalist in a senior leadership role, Rana said.
“Only two out of the 15 news organisations have set up an anti-harassment inquiry committee, despite a federal law making it mandatory for employers,” she added. According to the findings of the gender audit, majority of the news organisations do not have documented policies regarding employee conduct, salaries, and promotions.
“At nearly half of the organisations, salaries were paid late, and the wages of female journalists were lower than male counterparts in a quarter of the organisations,” Rana said.
In its recommendations, the gender audit report suggested that journalists and their representative trade unions and associations should demand transparency in contracts and wage structures as well as fair mechanisms for professional career development.
Media associations should seek legal help where news organisations violate gender-related laws and regulations and make their own forums gender inclusive by listening to and addressing the concerns raised by women journalists, the report recommended.