Young Women, Media, and Society

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Young Women, Media,and Society

• Kuselwa Gongo

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What young women?

• Who are young women?
• Where are they?
• Why young women?

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Women in the media

• All women are represented problematically in the
  media
• Some are represented more problematically than
  others
• Some are not represented at all

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Why the problem?

• Problem in society problem in the media
• Problems are not found solely within the media
• The media are not a true reflection of society

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Case Study Women in Cabinet in the Media

• Looked at
• two South African weekly newspapers
• the way in which women in Cabinet are presented
  in the media
• Results
• Even with important women there is ambivalence
  in how to respond to having female members of
  Cabinet.

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Results

• Even with important women there is ambivalence
  in how to respond to having female members of
  Cabinet.
• To some degree, the media have not yet come to
  grips with writing about women in their public
  roles.
• The media have not yet found a way of framing and
  representing them within the norms of the public
  sphere, as happens more often with male members
  of Cabinet.

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Problems with women in the media

• Representation of women is dual-faceted
• under-representation
• stereotypical representation
• Always situated firmly as female realm
• Often sexualized
• Often situated in private spheres
• Some women simply do not feature

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What does this mean for young women?

• Few positive role models
• Often problematic role models
• Lack of definition of image for young women

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Where to from here?

• Imperative that society comes up with solutions
• Solutions cannot exist only at the policy level
• Media have to come to grips with representing
  women
• More diverse representations of all women