
If India's press is so free, then how come hardly any women are sourced in articles of major publications, such as the weekly news magazine, India Today?
Comparable to Newsweek, India Today has 1.1 million in circulation every week published in five languages. Launched in 1975, it is estimated that the publication has as many as 15 million readers. India Today has one of the most interactive websites in the country (i.e. full magazine archives, photos, videos, and blogs, national and international politics, economics, the environment, health, society, arts and entertainment).
India Today covers nearly every genre a magazine could ever hope to touch on, albeit one minor detail, there is a noticeable gender disparity in news stories.
India’s press it seems as if women generally are used more for their femininity instead of their successes or influence on society.
The media system in India is, in many ways, similar to the US. It offers a various selection of newspapers that competes with others. India became a more liberalized economy in the 1990s, which boosted the press system, a better understanding of English as the language of international business, and increased the number of dialect-specific media outlets. According to Jeremy Tunstall, a media analyst, India’s mass media outlets, which are the leader in southern Asia, reach Bangladesh and Pakistan. These three countries together make up 22 percent of the world’s population.
India’s national media system is most complex due to the many languages provided. The country has a sturdy English language press, too. But India doesn’t participate much in media importing from other countries. Instead it mimics other press systems, like ones in the US or Britain, which can bee seen in India’s Page Six press, layouts and headlines, for example.
Indian press is more diverse than American press because it’s entirely free. However, it is not as technologically advanced as America’s online media outlets. In developing nations the use of the Internet is very different. It’s used more for development communication in poorer countries than media communication.
India generally seems to be a patriarchal society because in many of the articles women were portrayed as meek and innocent. For example, “bloodied women and children” were the poignant factor used in Hasan Zaidi’s article on a major terror attack in Pakistan. In many American newsmagazines (like Newsweek) journalists often don't identify gender in political stories, largely in part because of its irrelevance, (like, “Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Reid").
In the India Today stories, gender labeling is quite noticeable. In a few of the IT sample articles, the women who were cited were labeled like women, and not as leaders. These articles heavily mentioned a woman’s femininity, either referring to her dress, romantic status (i.e. a “widow”) or family status. For example, IT reporter Jhilmil Motihar compiled a brief about two Indian politicians’ daughters who have recently broke into the political scene. She wrote of 30-year-old Pankaja Munde, daughter of Gopinath Munde, “…She has been spending long hours with Daddy at rallies.” Perhaps Motihar feels it’s justifiable to insinuate a cutesy reference into the brief — especially since it is one about politicians and their daughters. It would be curious to see how readers received the article if a man had written it. This could be seen on its Web site, India Today provides a rating graphic that allows users to comment on the article whether it was “good” or “bad” on a scale of five points.
Gender labeling is common in the media. Leading women political figures are “nominated” by male journalists who emphasize masculine or dominant qualities. For example, in S. Prasannarajan’s article memorializing Indira Ghandi, his words poetically revered her efforts for the people of India (Prasannarajan, 2009). However, scandal, romance or any other out-of-the-ordinary bit of information gets factored into the public equation, their feminine qualities become criticized (like, “former beauty queen”).
The imbalance of the genders in political reportage, especially in America, is largely due to the overall gender disparity in governments across the globe. According to a report found in The Straits Times in Singapore, numbers from 2006 show that women make up for less than 17 percent of policy makers throughout the world. And at the rate women are insinuating themselves into politics today, gender equality isn’t projected to happen until 2068.
According to reporter Theresa Devasahayam, countries like France (and in some ways, Rwanda) have inducted some form of mandatory gender quotas to allow women’s voices to be better heard.
William Pesek of the Herald Sun in Australia wrote that recent statistics from the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index shows more Asian countries’ gaps worsened instead of improved this year. The index, which is based on economic participation, opportunity, education, politics, and health, showed that Sri Lanka fell four places from being in the top 20 nations that have gender parity. Asia’s under performance says a lot considering half of the world’s population is female.
Another contributing thought that might help explain why women are still portrayed as less-important political officials in India, and as a patriarchal society, is that of birth control. There is a definite increase in gender imbalance in the country because of an increase in gender-selective abortions. According to a report in The Christian Science Monitor, findings from the United Nations Population Fund, there are less than 93 female births to every 100 males. This is 12 less than the world’s average for women.
When analyzing the context in which the sources are used, the differences are more apparent. Women public officials in America are treated similarly to men, especially Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and often Sarah Palin, who are often criticized in the media, just as any male political figure would. In India, female political sources' femininities are played up. References are often made to their saris and overall gender. It could be hoped for that once people can overlook gender, equality will be more achievable.