Kenya has become the second country in Africa to launch the Unstereotype Alliance that seeks to broaden the representation of women, and men, in advertising and media, in an effort to curb negative social norms.
The Kenya National Chapter seeks to increase empowered women represented in the media to have impactful influences on both public and private environments.
While the media has for a while highlighted the widening gender imbalance, it has also been guilty of misrepresenting women in terms of the distribution of leadership roles and allocation of space for media coverage.
Although more girls are enrolling for journalism courses in universities, women still lack basic freedom and opportunities in the workplace.
Men have continued to dominate while women put up with various atrocities such as sexual harassment to being deemed unfit for ‘manly’ journalistic assignments.
Media companies are, however, coming up fast in terms of coverage of women in leadership positions in the media.
Progress has been made in gender representation in the media over recent years as the industry becomes more aware and empowered.
The national chapter was backed by a coalition of key players in the advertising industry and private-sector organizations.
The Unstereotype Alliance was congregated by the UN Women, a United Nations entity for gender and women’s empowerment.
“I am so pleased that Kenya will become our first national chapter to launch in 2021, further growing the global footprint of the Unstereotype Alliance,” said the UN Women executive director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Other organizations supporting the chapter included the Marketing Society of Kenya (MSK), Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), and the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP).
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