Monrovia – Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General for Political Affairs and Rule of Law of United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), Waldemar Vrey, has called on President George Weah to appoint more women to his cabinet in order to reflect significant women’s participation in the public space in Liberia.
Of the most recent batch of 83 names and the first list including the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Finance and State for Presidential Affairs, and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), only 26 are women, mainly as assistants and deputies.
“We are noting the appointments that the President is making, and while we welcome the number of females that he has appointed in positions, I do think that he is not quite reaching the 30 percent level at this time,” Vrey said last Friday in Monrovia at the launch of a report on media reporting gender and women in the just-ended 2017 elections. “While women make up about 50 percent of the electorate [in the 2017 elections], the voice of women is not being heard,” he said, adding, “Something needs to be done to ensure that women’s voice is taken seriously.
Women are being appointed in key positions. President Weah retained Montserrado Superintendent Florence Brandy and the Director General of the General Services Agency (GSA) Mary Broh and appointed a host of new others, including Broadcasters Tetee Gebro and Estella Liberty-Kermu to the Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS) as deputy directors general. There are many more positions to be occupied, and a third batch of appointments could be made any time from now. But Vrey decided to sound a caveat.
“We call on him that while some of those appointments are still [being] considered, to please consider finding a way to make sure that women are sufficiently represented in his executive branch of government,” Vrey said.
The report was compiled by New Narratives Liberia—a media auxiliary group that builds the capacity of African journalists—in collaboration with the Canadian government, UN Women and the Female Journalists of Liberia (FEJAL).
The report found that gender blindness—thought not blatant or subtle stereotypes—was the most common gender bias in media reporting.
For instance, newspaper stories had over 80 percent or 215 out of 268 articles with men-centered; while only 10 percent or 14 out of 138 radio programs focused on women or gender issues.
It found that media reports treated women candidates as sex or beauty object, focused on their romantic history and marital life, rather than say what their platforms were.
Coverage for then vice presidential hopeful Jewel Howard-Taylor, for instance, focused on her relationship with former President Charles Taylor and sometimes questioned her motherly role, the report found.
The New Narratives report took samples from FrontPage Africa, Daily Observer, The New Dawn, New Democrat, Inquirer and Women Voices. It also took samples from Fabric 101.1 FM, ELBC 99.9 and OK FM 99.5 FM.
“Women’s under-representation is undemocratic,” said Lisa Kindervater Sieh, an independent consultant on women’s political participation and leadership, who worked with New Narratives on the report. “It means that women are not able to fully exercise their civil rights and women’s voices are likely absent from national decision-making. This makes gender-sensitive laws and policies highly unlikely,” she added.
“There are real barriers to women’s equal political participation, which include cultural beliefs about women’s positions in the Liberian society and their relation to men as well as their social roles as caregivers and homemakers, and the consequent lack of financial and political capital.”
Sieh said the lack of sufficient women in the media and in editorial role compounded the already existing barriers against women political participation. The report found that women journalists wrote only 11 percent or 29 out of 189 newspaper articles with the names of the reporters on them, corroborating a 2015 study by the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) that highlights women’s underrepresentation in the media. That study found that women make up 20 percent of total number of journalists in Liberia, with only five percent editorial staff.
“We sought to raise awareness of the harm done by gender-biased reporting, to build the capacity of journalists in gender-sensitive politics and elections coverage, and increase media practitioners’ willingness to pursue and to do stories that challenge negative stereotypes about women in politics and public office.
Sieh added: “We believe that if women in politics are portrayed more fairly and more equitably in the media, voters and powerbrokers will be more likely to nominate, elect and appoint women to prominent positions in political parties on local and national decision-making. Also, if women are portrayed as active and effective political participants, more women will be motivated to engage into public life.”
Report by James Harding Giahyue, FPA Contributor