Our member, Zoran Pehar, conducted the second in a series of trainings on gender-equal reporting, “Rewriting the Story – Tackling Media Gender Stereotypes in Political and Public Life,” this weekend as part of the International Federation of Journalists project.
This time, the seven participants were mostly journalism students. It was particularly encouraging to see that they have a developed sense of equality and recognize all forms of women’s stereotyping in the media, and that they are ready to fight against it in their future work.
Compared to the previous training, this one had two male colleagues, which is especially important in the fight for equality because women already know what it’s like to be discriminated against, while men need to become aware of it.
The participants agreed that there is a very simple tool you can use in reporting called the “rule of reversibility,” which states: do not ask a woman questions that you would not ask a man. By applying this simple rule in your work, you have already made significant progress towards equality.
In anticipation of the European elections and as part of the super election year in Croatia, we also recommend that you download the IFJ Gender Responsive Guidelines for Covering Elections.