The Alliance for Women in Media Africa (AWMA), a non-profit organization is set to launch its maiden report to enhance gender equality and better working conditions for women in the Ghanaian media.

The report launch will be in partnership with the School of Information and Communication Studies (SICS) of the University of Ghana, on the theme, “Status of Women in the Ghanaian Media: Providing Evidence for Gender Equality and Advocacy Report.”

A statement from the Alliance ahead of the launch said the report contained responses from interviews of 300 female media professionals across the 16 regions of Ghana.

It said the publication was a product of a collaborative research between AWMA and SICS, with funding from the US Embassy Small Grants Programme.

The statement said the publication was intended to serve as a resource for engaging different key stakeholders such as media owners, editors and managers, practitioners, and regulators.

It added that it also aimed at advocating for better working conditions, smoother career progression, and a safer working environment for women in the media industry.

The statement said the report formed part of AWMA’s advocacy programme; “Women in Media Rising” whose objective was to provide baseline evidence for gender equality and advocacy in the news media.

“This report is a product of meaningful partnerships and collaboration. It provides much-needed evidence to aid our advocacy work. Women in media experience a lot of drawbacks- we know it, we feel it, and we talk about it,” said the statement.

It urged women in the media to use the findings from the report to act for equity to change things, adding, “our sentiments alone won’t give the change we want to see,” it said.

The statement said without the evidence to back claims of gender practices in the Ghanaian media, they remained anecdotal, and efforts at correcting them could, at best, only be minimal in their impact.

“With a report like this, it is possible to have real conversations on how to improve the lives of women working in the media,” is said, adding, “more gender-equal media is good for Ghana...”

Alliance for Women in Media Africa (AWMA) is a network of over 180 women across the media industry that have come together to work towards increasing the visibility and impact of women in media.

It seeks to contribute to an inclusive global discourse where the voices, stories, experiences and images of African women and girls are correctly, sufficiently, and equally represented.

AWMA envisions a media industry where women are trained, visible, and in positions of influence and power.

Whereas the School of Information and Communication Studies (SICS) aims at improving and extending the frontiers of Information and Communication dissemination and management through effective teaching, learning and research, it focuses on developing world-class students who are skilled, versatile, creative, and ready to take up positions in the local and global information and communication industries.