previous | next | table of contents

Women Meeting the Challenge ¹
A Handbook for Media Leadership

Women Meeting the Challenge: A Handbook for Media Leadership is filled with practical solutions to the barriers that hold women back from reaching their leadership potential. It draws upon the discussions at The Carole Simpson Leadership Institute (CSLI) and other African Women's Media Center (AWMC) programs to create a guide for women aspiring to leadership in the news media. It uses recent studies to demonstrate where African women stand as leaders in the media. And it relies on the leadership development work of Jerusha Arothe-Vaughan, director of Independent Communication Associates Ltd., who facilitated the CSLI training. In addition, the UNDP Africa's regional gender programme endorses and confirms these methods for empowering women to assume leadership positions.

While this book is for women, about women and by women, it also is a tool that should be shared with everyone in the newsroom. It is a means by which to change the leadership roles of women in their media houses. As such, it can be a powerful tool for awareness of leadership training and capacity building for women, as was recognized by the 1997 South Africa Gender Roundtable as the key factors in women's empowerment. Some of the solutions must come from the women themselves and some must come from the media companies. To accomplish that, women must take men with them every step of the way, sharing with them responsibility for how the media conducts itself toward women and women's issues.

The AWMC thanks Jerusha Arothe-Vaughan for her many contributions to the content of this publication. Ms. Arothe-Vaughan is Director of Independent Communication Associates Limited (InCA, Ltd.), a communications and management consulting firm based in Kenya.

Introduction and Acknowledgements

In Africa, as elsewhere, the news is seldom managed or presented by, for or about women. In all forms of news media, decisions are most often made by men. When women are excluded from decision-making within the news, the media fails to reflect the issues and perspectives that are important to a majority of society.

With the social, cultural and economic changes sweeping Africa today, more opportunities have opened for women to move into positions from which they can have an impact on the content of news coverage. Leadership is indeed becoming more accessible to women. Yet many women are not prepared to take on the challenges of leadership or have a good grasp of how to maintain a position of authority. Generally, women's socialisation and education do not incorporate a basic knowledge of the skills necessary to move into leadership, or an understanding of the individual's relationship with power and power structures. Women with considerable talent and ambition continue to be frustrated in their efforts to move into decision-making roles in the news media.

In response to these concerns, the AWMC established a programme designed to help women gain equality in the newsroom through educational workshops and networking. The Carole Simpson Leadership Institute (CSLI), named for the American journalist whose generous donation provided seed funding for the institute, was launched with a four-day seminar in November, 1998. Out of this gathering of 42 women from 13 African countries came ideas, discussions and strategies on how African women can break through the cultural, social and gender barriers that prevent them from reaching their leadership potential.

Just three months after attending the leadership training programme, a woman from Zimbabwe wrote, "For the first time I realized my self worth and I am much more assertive. I had lacked confidence in myself because I had been side-lined for a very long time." After returning from the programme she acted on her career plan and her new feelings of empowerment, and was soon after given a promotion, becoming the first woman to hold the position of deputy chief editor at her newspaper.

Where Do Women Stand?

The idea that women can be strong and effective leaders is not reflected in the reality of women's status in the news media. Studies of some African media organisations have confirmed the perception that women are absent at the top. In 1995, UNESCO conducted a groundbreaking study of the African region showing that, on average, women account for only 8.4 percent of the highest levels in media management in broadcast and 14.1 percent in print media.

In 1997, the UNDP Africa Roundtable, organized in South Africa, highlighted the obstacles to women's empowerment through the media. It was noted that a lack of gender advocacy activities and a lack of institutions through which to conduct advocacy programmes leads to inadequate resources, training, and opportunities for women's advancement. Many of these obstacles can be overcome if women are in leadership positions within the media itself.

During 1997-1998, Jennifer Makunike-Sibanda, Regional Director of the Federation of African Media Women-Southern African Development Community, conducted a study of employment patterns of 37 media organisations in Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Her preliminary findings show that the majority of media organisations hire men for decision-making positions such as editor/general manager and deputy editor/deputy general manager. When women reach higher level positions, often they are given the secondary position of deputy. On average, there were 24 male senior reporters per organisation compared to only six women in the same position.

While 54 percent of responding organisations said they had at least one female board of management member, most had an average ratio of five men to two women members sitting on their boards. Forty-three percent had no female members. About 40 percent of the organisations had both male and female representatives sitting on their board of governors, but again the average ratio was six men for every two women.

Furthermore, most of the survey respondents did not have an affirmative action program for the hiring and promotion of women. A majority of the responding organisations (75.7 percent) said they had not had any policy discussions to address issues of equal opportunities for women. Additionally, only about 29 percent used affirmative action during recruitment and promotion.

CHART ON GENDER DISTRIBUTION FOR DECISION-MAKING POSITIONS IN MEDIA ORGANISATIONS

The result of so few women in leadership positions in the media is that there is no strong voice for how their gender should be portrayed in the media and what issues should be reported. Men are left to develop stories based on their own cultural and social views. According to a study conducted by Margaret Gallagher in 1996, women appeared in just 19 percent of all news stories in ten African countries. When women do appear in the news, they are most often portrayed as victims of violence or as physical objects and rarely as experts, resources or leaders.

What Are the Obstacles?

There are a variety of obstacles that are preventing women from moving ahead in the news media - some individual, some organisational and others firmly rooted in societal and cultural beliefs. The result is an ongoing struggle for women to gain acceptance as professionals, create opportunities to develop a sense of personal confidence and vision, and obtain access to the knowledge and training necessary for leadership development. Understanding the dynamics of these obstacles is the first step in overcoming them.

Cultural and Social Barriers

Perhaps the most predominant set of obstacles faced by women aspiring to move into the upper ranks of the news media are the cultural and social norms they face every day. These stereotypical notions about women's abilities and responsibilities effectively keep them from entering the professional world, and once there, set up enormous barriers to their success. Yet women continue to struggle to transcend biases against them. "If I had tried to live by the cultural standards, I don't think I'd be where I am now," says Susan Njanji Matetakufa of Zimbabwe.

Women are expected, first and foremost, to care for the home, children, other family members and their spouses. Unlike their male colleagues, women with demanding professional careers are expected to maintain their duties at home often with little or no help from other family members.

While pressures to conform to traditional roles may come from boyfriends or husbands, many African women say that, more often, difficulties emerge from their own families and their in-laws. In some cases, families look down at the careers chosen by their daughters or sisters. Women journalists struggle against negative stereotypes about women in the journalism profession. The image is that women in this field take on some of the more harsh male social behaviours.

"There are some women who come to work in the media and don't have the support from their family structures and that's because of their cultural background," said a woman journalist from Uganda. "You have to move away from those restrictions, not just saying, 'I don't like it,' but doing something about it, and being able to withstand the pressure."

Such assumptions about women's roles in society and in the home have clearly kept women from the arenas of power and leadership. It is assumed that women cannot or should not work long hours, take on difficult assignments or travel for business. As women attempt to move into management, they must fight to gain acceptance in a new role as a professional and to create an acceptable balance for themselves between their lives at home and at work.

According to Libby, Councillor of the Independent Broadcasting Authority of South Africa, "Women are often made to feel that you have to choose between child care and career. [We] often only rise to the top... by either giving up on our families or by exploiting other women - whether it's our mothers, our neighbours, our sisters, or women who work for us in order to get there."

Women throughout Africa deal with the impact that societal and cultural norms have on their ability to do their job, as well as on the attitudes of their supervisors and colleagues. Among many employers there is a perception that women tend to take more time off than men to care for family members. But, in the study conducted by Jennifer Makunike-Sibanda a majority of respondents (77.6 percent) said that female members of the staff were prepared to work the necessary hours to get the job done.

Some women managers have commented that, in fact, women sometimes feel a great deal of pressure not to take time off. They fear that they will prove the negative assumptions about women, making matters worse for themselves and their females colleagues. Many women have told of job interviews where a potential employer asks a woman if she has children and how she will take care of them and do her job at the same time.

But dealing with assumptions regarding family responsibilities is just one set of obstacles women face in the newsroom. In media houses throughout Africa, women are discriminated against in terms of salary, access to jobs, access to information and harassment. Each of these affects women's opportunities for advancement in the media. When women are left out of formal or informal information networks they miss out on training opportunities, fellowships, promotions and important assignments.

Many women journalists feel that the type of assignments they receive inhibits their advancement potential. A woman from Ghana states, "Bosses tend to create the impression that women are incapable of certain assignments." They are too often assigned to cover soft news and are denied assignments related politics, technology or business. In this way, they don't get the exposure they need to move ahead. Mutwe Sperance from Senegal said, "the majority of the top posts in the media are held by men, and they rarely give women the opportunity to prove their capacity on politics or other major reporting matters."

In the words of Mildred Mulenga of Zambia, "The important stories are assigned to the men. Female journalists are largely restricted to unimportant, unchallenging assignments. It will be a long time before women in Zambia are assigned to cover things like riots, bomb explosions, and international summits... Female journalists rarely get to be editors; the highest position they can aspire to is senior reporter."

Women who are promoted into management have related an additional set of challenges in the workplace, including hostility. Zubeida Jaffer was recently appointed group parliamentary editor for Independent Newspapers of South Africa. She described the day top management informed the all-male staff of her promotion. "I was sitting in this room, with only men, and they were told that I would be taking this position. No one came up to me and congratulated me. For me that was such a shock. It was the first time in my life I experienced anything as rude as that in terms of my colleagues. In a funny, subconscious way I'd expected it, but it was still a shock."

Jemimah Mwakisha, a reporter with The Nation in Kenya and chair of that country's Association of Media Women, suggested that perhaps there is an expectation that women managers should be better than men. Women managers sometimes feel it is necessary to constantly prove themselves and their abilities, even though they had legitimately earned their promotions. They have to overcome preconceptions about women bosses, while men with less experience have been more readily promoted and accepted.

At times women said they are placed in awkward situations by issues that deal with gender and that are not easy to openly address. For example, asking for women's toilets in media houses that have accommodations only for men. In such a situation, not only are women made uncomfortable, but they are made to feel unwelcome in the work environment.

Personal Obstacles

Women, themselves, can bring their own leadership obstacles with them into the workplace. Often women are taught to be soft-spoken, not question authority, stay at home and in some cases, not to look someone in the eye. Women are faced with not only overcoming the traditional beliefs held by men in the workplace, but also with modifying some of their own views and assumptions.

Just as women generally possess some traits that are important to leadership, there are other characteristics that women must struggle to overcome if they are to be effective leaders. Generally speaking, women tend to avoid taking risks, which can limit their innovative contributions to the company and, therefore, their visibility as well. Women can have a tendency to focus on details rather than taking a big-picture approach, which is key to leadership. And, while women have a strong orientation to human relationships and the success of the team, this can create a situation where a female manager is not seen as a strong authority. In that light, some women who have reached management positions said they have struggled to understand their leadership role.

Finally, there can be a great deal of rivalry among women in the newsroom. When few management level jobs are available to women, an atmosphere of competition arises rather than one of cooperation and support. Some women talk of feeling alienated by other women once they have been promoted. Others mention female supervisors who do little to help female colleagues gain the skills they need to move ahead. A woman from Tanzania said, "When I was moving up, men and women tried to keep me down. They felt threatened, so I had to work harder to prove myself - my strength was, in fact, my dedication to my work."

• Physical appearance makes a difference. Wear business-like clothing. A crisp, no-nonsense image helps establish positive contact with men.
• Be prepared and organised. Use strong, direct language and be firm if you are interrupted. Statistics show that women allow themselves to be interrupted 50 percent more often than men. Don't contribute to those statistics!
• Use appropriate body language. Men usually use less body language than women.
• Do not respond to flirting. Keep your conversation and attention directed to the business at hand.
• Keep your sense of humour. A sense of humour helps keep you "human," but don't "laugh off" disrespectful or harassing behaviour.
• Speak up and voice your objections. If any language or conversation offends, say so.
• Avoid discussing feelings. Personal revelations from business associates are inappropriate.
• Don't feel you have to like someone to get the job done. Concentrate on the job at hand and productivity, not personalities.
• Don't be afraid to ask questions or for advice. No one has all the answers, and honesty is the best approach.
• Be prepared to disagree and to stand up for what you believe.

• fall apart when the going gets tough
• are catty or love to gossip
• are afraid to make decisions or always change their minds
• use sex to get what they want
• are difficult to work for
• aren't able to see the big picture
• aren't good team players
• are too soft to make decisions
• allow their families to get in the way of the job
• no sooner get trained that they leave to have a baby
• are too emotional and cry too easily
• can't travel on business because of family commitments
• make things more complicated than they really are
• are moody
• are inconsistent and fickle, and don't know what they want

Tools To Meet The Challenges

There are many mechanisms to help you address such challenges as you work to move into leadership positions. This next section offers a number of ways to begin exploring leadership and strategies to strengthen your leadership abilities. Working through these exercises should help you gain the confidence to prove cultural stereotypes wrong and to challenge workplace attitudes.

Knowing Your Leadership potential

Leadership begins with self-awareness. It is important for you to understand your own personal style and your strengths and weaknesses related to effective leadership. By determining where your strengths lie, building onto those strengths and learning to rely on them, you can showcase your talents in the best light. By focusing on your strengths and using them to help you through challenging situations, you will release a greater productive energy and reduce the stress in your life. Once you understand your strengths, strive to find the outlets that allow you to express your managerial talents and build your confidence.

It can be difficult to determine your leadership strengths independently. Taking the following test can be starting point. Then talk to your colleagues, your supervisors and the staff that report to you. Ask them their perceptions on your strong points. Think about the talents you are using when you are most satisfied with your work. Most likely, this is when you are relying on your strengths.

However, it is also important to not become too comfortable with only the set of skills at which you naturally excel. When your boss is pushing you to stretch your talents, to go beyond your previous limits, view that as a way to tap into undeveloped skills. The further you are stretched, the more you feel your abilities as a leader are being developed.

Sometimes, it is necessary to encourage your bosses to push you and to remind them to nurture your talents. Zintle Filtane of South Africa offers the following advice, "Believe in yourself. Don't be afraid to go into those areas that are seen to be no-go areas for women."

Not everybody is going to endorse your career development goals. Some people are going to try to sabotage you for a variety of reasons. A woman from Tanzania says that the greatest challenge she faces is "the negative attitudes of my male-counterparts. I am the only woman manager and I'm proving too good for their liking."

Janet Zeenat Karim, owner of Now Publications in Malawi, tells of her own experience with this and how she turned it around. "I was given chances and was really stretched from an early stage in my career. But my immediate bosses didn't like this. I got the last laugh though because I resigned, launched my own publication company and started producing a magazine." She explained that "the managing director took my magazine and literally threw it at our chief executive and said, 'We had this talent here, and it's gone and there is nothing we can do about it.'"

Enlisting the very people who seem opposed to your plans can reap positive results. A woman who participated in the CSLI program said, "I saw the potential of the job and I wanted to stretch myself, so I decided to take my boss on board. If I had an idea I took him with me, I made him think that it was part of his initiative. He would get credit, but the next time he would give me a little bit more leeway. Little by little, I got to get as much as I could from the job by taking him along."

Asserting Yourself

It is important for a leader to be assertive in order to stand up for the principles she believes in, to be seen as an figure of authority and respect, and to improve her negotiation skills. Often women shy away from assertive behaviour because they fear being seen as aggressive.

Assertiveness is not the same as aggressiveness. Aggressive behaviour is combative and disregards the rights of others. Assertive behaviour recognizes both your rights and the rights of others. Effective leaders use assertive behaviour because it is persistent and firm, positive, direct and open. This style of leadership lends itself to motivating teams and building alliances.

By minimizing their own contributions and accomplishments, hiding their true opinions and being apologetic, women can fall into a trap of non-assertive behaviour. By asserting yourself, you strengthen lines of communication with your supervisors and colleagues, take control of your decisions, and utilize formal and informal sources of power.

Rights in the Context of Assertive Behaviour

Assertive behaviour involves being clear about the rights you take for yourself and respecting the rights of others.

• Your own feelings, needs and opinions
• Consider your own needs
• Ask (not demand)
• Refuse
• Be successful
• Be your own self
• Make a mistake
• Change your mind
• Choose not to assert yourself

Balancing Work and Family

According to an IWMF study conducted in 1996, African woman journalists place balancing work and family life as the greatest challenge they face. Women managers often work hard both in the office and at home. This balancing act can create a great deal of stress, draining their energy and their creative powers. Any leadership tool must address the techniques for balancing those often divergent priorities and help women reduce the stress levels in their lives.

Jerusha Arothe-Vaughan, of Inca, offers the following reminders of the stress factors in women's professional and home lives and offers some strategies for dealing with them.

Wise Advice on the Great Balancing Act

Clara Kenole Olsen, managing editor of The Botswana Gazette: "If a woman arranges time off to take care of her family, she could negotiate with her employers to do some work while she is at home that might ensure that she is not totally cut off."

Gwen Lister, editor of The Namibian: "Balancing work and family means living absolutely chaotic lives. To move ahead you need to make sacrifices on all fronts, relationships too, but maybe that just makes us stronger."

A woman from Nigeria: "With a lot of planning and wise investment in home labor-saving appliances, one can maintain a balance. And it is important that any spare time be quality time with family. The extended family system should also be exploited to the fullest."

Again from Nigeria: "The profession of journalism for a married woman with children is not an easy task. The secret behind her success is mastering the sharing of time between career, family and herself, and not giving up no matter the challenges both at work and a home."

Professional Life Stress Factors

• Work load
• Lack of time management
• Relationships with boss, subordinates colleagues
• Visitors and persistent calls at work
• Sexual harassment
• Guilt over neglecting family
• Discrepancies between values
• Working terms and conditions
• Conflicting roles: manager/housewife
• Inadequate technology
• Commuting and traffic jams
• Gender differences our own feelings, needs and opinions

Strategies/Solutions

• Set priorities with achievable goals
• Make use of your assertive skills
• Time management
• Negotiate for salary increment and equitable remuneration
• Delegate work where possible
• Use stress management techniques, such as taking breaks
• Prepare adequately for meetings
• Don't make yourself ill trying to achieve the impossible

Personal Life Stress Factors

• Heavy domestic chores
• Lack of financial management at home; insufficient income
• Relationship with spouse
• Domestic violence
• Guilt over neglecting family
• Pregnancy and family planning
• Marital status
• Discrepancies between values
• Conflicting roles: manager/house wife
• Lack of social amenities
• Lack of child care
• Lack of modern conveniences
• Different professions

Strategies/Solutions

• Work out a plan on family finances
• Manage your time better
• Find time for each other; discuss sex and other family matters
• Share domestic chores
• Network with other women's clubs, NGOs, etc.
• Organise house help and use labour-saving devices
• Increase quality time for yourself, family, take holidays
• Create personal space; use tact and be consistent
• Do not bring office problems home
• Seek counselling
• Be assertive with your extended family

Stepping Outside of the Box

So often, women and men focus their thought processes and their actions within a very narrow set of parameters - a box or a comfort zone. Overcoming gender obstacles in climbing the media ladder requires stepping outside of that box. "People who are into this comfort zone will not think creatively because they will always say it is too risky," Arothe-Vaughan said. "Excuses like, I might get the sack, my husband might start divorce proceedings, it will cost too much, or being afraid of losing control, power or authority or looking foolish is not practical."

In much of Africa, the news media is undergoing great changes in its structure and approach. Creative thinking and the ability to break out of the personal comfort zone and take a few risks are basic requirements for leadership in this field. Women, who have been the historic outsiders in the media, have an advantage by bringing a new perspective to the industry. You should not be afraid to unleash your ingenuity and resourcefulness and to establish a creative vision.

Using your creativity and taking risks will demonstrate your leadership skills to others and will help you to find ways to deal with the challenges women leaders face. Women who are willing to take risks in breaking through the barriers in their career path should continually question systems that are often seen as the norm. They should break away from restrictions such as cultural and social practices that are oppressive to women and make their concerns heard.

Keep an open mind and don't judge until you have thoroughly explored alternatives. Ask questions in new ways; never assume the usual path is the best one; create opportunities for risk taking. For Amina Frense, a producer and editor with the South African Broadcasting Company Television, overcoming the fact that she did not have management training and education meant taking a big risk. "It is a team effort, it is confidence, it's a healthy dose of arrogance," she said. "I do not have the MBAs or any of those qualifications that one might require for running such a big organisation, but I'm determined to carry on."

Creating Visibility

An important key to moving ahead is creating a positive image about yourself and sense of excellence at what you do. Said Arothe-Vaughan: "There is no point having an idea for a story and allowing somebody else to hijack that idea. You have to have ownership of your own ideas." Spend time knocking on office doors in your organisation and getting people to know you and recognise you. Make yourself available to talk about your areas of expertise. Offer to mentor younger colleagues.

But, adds Arothe-Vaughan, "If you claim your right to be visible... you need to be aware of what the repercussions might be and then put your own strategies in place. There are people who are not going to like to see you being visible because they would like to be more visible than you."

Let your colleagues and supervisors know about your successes and your accomplishments. Share copies of reports you have contributed to and successful articles you have written. Let people know about the ideas you think are important to the future of the organisation and the community. Building visibility is a common career strategy for men, yet women shy away from self-promotion. If you don't toot your own horn, no one else will do it for you.

Elizabeth Akua Ohene, a Ghanian national and deputy editor for BBC gave this advice: "Sometimes being a token achieves far more than you can achieve being a member of a big representative body... But make sure if you are a token, you are an impressive token."

Visibility: How to Become More Positively Visible

• Contribute to meeting agendas
• Reports: share your own, have your name on the report
• Is your name on the organisation's directory?
• Accommodation or office space
• Visibility in social aspects of the organisation
• Introduce new practices with your name attached
• Select strategic issues important to organisation and work on them
• Think of the future; become future oriented; outward looking
• Get information outside of the organisation and be visible outside of organisation

Making a Career Plan

Jerusha Arothe-Vaughan said it best: "Careers, like everything else, have got to be managed and they've got to be planned. Rarely does a successful career happen spontaneously. It happens through goal setting, planning, evaluation, and focused skill development. That doesn't mean that careers don't often change direction, that plans are not revised and that you shouldn't take advantage of unexpected opportunities.

It does mean that you should take control of where your career is headed. It requires that you be deliberate in your professional and personal choices and be willing to take on additional challenges and risks. After answering the following questions, think about what kind of training will help you get where you want to be. Talk to others who already hold the position you aspire to and learn how they reached that position. Talk to others seeking similar positions and learn what their career plans entail. Seek out a mentor to help you navigate the organisation and discover.

If you do not have the full requirements for the job, seek specialized training. The importance of training women for leadership was a key issue at the UNDP Media panel held as part of the Economic Commission for Africa's conference in May 1997 in Ethiopia. Panelists included representatives from the AWMC, and the League for Women and Children Education. The UNDP works with many organizations throughout Africa which can provide training for leadership positions or direct you to institutions that can offer such training.

Seraphine Lainjo Tata of Ghana says, "To have and keep the position you want, you need to define our goal and objectives in the profession and your strategies to achieve them. You need to analyse the situation in the background. There are no failures in life. There are only experiences and outcomes that need to be redefined and your direction refocused. You must seek out your priorities and learn to manage resources and time effectively. And when should you begin? Right now! Time lost is lost forever

Planning for the Future

• What job or type of job do I want next?
• What other possible options might I consider?
• By what process will I be offered this job?
• What actions will I need to take in this process?
• What additional skills might I need to develop?
• What additional experience will I need to show?
• What barriers might exist to my getting this job?
• How can I attempt to overcome them?
• From whom can I seek support?

The Importance of Networking

In many newsrooms throughout Africa, women often feel isolated and alone. They are not included in the informal networks that men take part in. Nor is it always appropriate for women to go to lunch or socialize after hours with their male colleagues. Yet, the information exchanged at such out-of-the-office gatherings is valuable. It is within these informal networks that men enhance their own visibility, promote their triumphs and share their challenges. When women aren't included, they miss out on potentially vital information that could help with career development.

While it is important for women to network with men, and with other women on a one-to-one basis, it is critical for women to develop formal networks. "The interaction between African women journalists is very important because we must increase our knowledge of each other," says Ana Lucie Kere of Burkino Faso.

"It's very important for all of us to realise and remind ourselves that we're not the only ones experiencing the difficulties that we're feeling," Libby Lloyd of South Africa said. "It's not us that's the problem, it's the system." And women need to work together to change the system; individual action alone is never enough.

Mike Siluma, editor of the Sowetan in South Africa and one of the several male journalists who particpated in the CLSI seminar, agrees. "Because most of the media is dominated by men, I think that we can talk until we are blue in the face. Nothing is going to happen until women organise themselves and lobby both within the particular media organisations that they work in, and in the industry as a whole."

• Study company policies to determine if they hinder women from advancing
• Help companies develop and adopt new policies on affirmative action, family friendly workplaces and support for training programs
• Share strategies for dealing with the obstacles faced in the work place and the challenges of balancing work and family
• Help each other focus their career goals and develop new skills

There are a number of strong and active women's media networks in Africa and more are being formed everyday. If you are not already a member of one of these organisations, find out if there is one in your area. If not consider forming one of your own. You can start small by meeting during your lunch break or after work in someone's home.

The goal is to find ways for women to share information and support with each other. Women's networks often discuss common work concerns and strategise on how to overcome these issues. They invite successful women leaders to share their stories and insights, and form bonds of support for risk-taking and career development.

Conclusion

As an information-driven industry, the news business holds a great deal of potential for women to rise into leadership positions. It is a business that is conducive to a team-approach, constantly in need of new ideas, and an arena in which one with good communication skills can excel. For many women, such skills come naturally.

By taking charge of the direction of their careers, practising assertiveness and challenging stereotypes, women can achieve positions of leadership. Each time a woman succeeds in breaking through to the upper levels of management, she has the opportunity to act as a role model for other women, to undermine the negative attitudes that keep women marginalised, and to change the policies and work environments that disregard women.

Akwe Amosu, a journalist from Nigeria who now works for the BBC says, "Its really important that we aim high and keep hammering away at the glass ceiling to try and get into positions where we can influence staff management policies - that's where the prejudice really works against women."

It won't be easy. The obstacles women face in being accepted as capable professionals and in moving into leadership positions are considerable. This was emphasized in the African and Beijing Platforms for Action. When women attain leadership positions in the media, they in turn have the opportunity to promote women's issues and advocate on behalf of women's leadership roles.

Change will not occur without hard work. It is only through a concerted effort, both individually and as part of a group, that women will begin to take their place as partners within the news media. By using resources, like this handbook, women will begin to understand their own leadership potential, learn how to showcase their talents and begin rising to newer and greater heights.

In speaking about the goals behind CSLI, Carole Simpson brought the role of women in the media into a broader context. She said, "We launched this institute with the knowledge that we are not the weaker sex, the second sex. We are society's most important asset, and we will not be relegated to any second class status. Our work with leadership development is about equality of opportunity, and boosting women to the high levels they deserve, aspire to, and can achieve. Not just the media, but the world will be better for that."

1. From the African Women's Media Center, http://www.awmc.com