Hear about the leaders in Kenyan media taking meaningful steps to make newsrooms a safe place for women.
The level of press freedom in Kenyan media outlets is among the highest in East Africa, according to the most recent World Press Freedom Index. And according to Reuters’s research, trust in the news grew by 6 percentage points last year in Kenya, following the 2022 election.
However, there is still much work to be done when it comes to making newsrooms a safe place for Kenyan women. According to a survey from Women in News in early 2022, about 90 percent of women working in Kenyan media reported that they were likely to be sexually harassed while on assignment. And for both women and gender-nonconforming respondents, more than half said they expected to face sexual harassment in the workplace. Thankfully, leaders in Kenyan media have started to take meaningful steps to address this issue.
On today’s episode of The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women, we will look at what actually works when it comes to ending sexual harassment at work. First, reporter Sharon Kiburi talks to Judie Kaberia. During her tenure as executive director of the Association of Media Women in Kenya, Kaberia helped Kenyan media outlets develop policies and procedures to tackle sexual harassment.
Then, host Reena Ninan speaks with Alexandra Kalev, a Tel Aviv University associate professor of sociology and dean of the sociology and anthropology departments. Kalev and her colleague Frank Dobbin recently wrote a book together called Getting to Diversity. Among other workplace inclusivity topics, Kalev and Dobbin conducted groundbreaking research about how to decrease sexual harassment in the workplace. According to Kalev, most of the well-intentioned programs that they analyzed actually backfired.
About The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women (HERO):
Could empowering women in the workplace be the simplest way to boost the global economy? Host Reena Ninan talks to women around the world changing the status quo in surprising ways to improve their lives, their families, and ultimately, the world. The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women (HER♀) is a Foreign Policy podcast supported in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
HER♀ listeners can learn more about these topics by signing up for special access to an FP Analytics policy brief on gender equality. Sign up by clicking here.
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Select Awards for HERO:
- 2023 Signal Award; Silver; Public Service, Activism & Social Impact; Individual Episode
- Runner up for 2022 International Women’s Podcast Awards
