IWD 2025: A call for gender inclusivity in journalism
Tracy Ohovwore, Benin City
International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8 every year, is set aside to celebrate the strength and resilience of women across the globe.
In commemoration of IWD Day 2025, themed “For All Women and Girls; Rights, Equality, Empowerment,” the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) has called for a gender-inclusive newsroom in a press statement to strengthen accountability and journalism, reinstating its commitment to bridging the gender gap in journalism.
The Executive Director/CEO of WSCIJ, Motunrayo Alaka, revealed that the disparities in men and women’s dominance in the newsroom were discouraging.
According to the statement, “Across 111 surveyed media organisations, women hold 25.7% of leadership positions, while men dominate at 74.3% with a wider imbalance in print and online media, where female leadership representation is only 4.6% and 5.5%, respectively. “
It further explained that the leadership gap influences whose story is told and how they are trained. This revealed that women are underrepresented in news content, featuring 7.1% of news stories and 12.1% of expert stories.
The group further called upon media outlets and organisations to bridge gender gaps in leadership and news representation, ensuring a diverse and equitable media landscape.
To address the imbalance, the group revealed that it had begun relevant engagements with media houses through its House-to-House initiative as part of the Report Women program.
“We worked with the management and staff of Daily Trust, Premium Times, The Nation, News Agency of Nigeria, New Telegraph newspaper, Leadership, Voice of Nigeria (VON), TVC News, Vanguard, Guardian, and Channels Television, among others to engage on the need for newsrooms to deepen their accountability journalism mechanisms through parity between men and women in the leadership of newsrooms and news content.
“Since its launch in 2014, the Report Women! Programme has trained 537 journalists across Nigeria and Ghana; produced 86 fellows under the Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP), supported 138 newsroom leadership projects focused on women and girls, published 136 investigative stories on gender-related issues, recognised 17 outstanding female journalists, produced six documentaries and eight media monitoring reports and conducted five research reports on gender representation in the media.” Moturanyo Alaka noted.
The statement further highlighted that International Women’s Day 2025 is a call to action for news media owners, publishers, managers, journalists, policymakers, civil society members, and the government to drive structural change towards accountability journalism through gender equality in newsroom leadership and media representation.
It added that the media must adopt intentional, systemic strategies to promote gender-balanced hiring and leadership advancement in newsrooms, create safer, more inclusive workplaces that eliminate bias and harassment, increase the visibility of women in news coverage as experts and subjects and support training, mentorship, and leadership development for female journalists.
