Women's Role In Mass Media

801 Words4 Pages
Introduction In a patriarchal culture, the role of women is undermined; a stereotype that disadvantages women also exists in society. The same tendency exists in people’s perspective of women and men. Women are always inferior from men. Typically, men hold a more dominant role, breadwinner, as a productive worker that holds the responsibility to obtain main income. As for women, their role is as a home maker, responsible for reproductive activities and domestic works (Sultana, 2011). Mass media is one of the industries that unconsciously have strengthened the belief about gender that exists in society (Daniel and Akanji, 2011). This begs the question; does the work process of mass media implements a belief that prioritizes man or patriarchy?…show more content…
According to research in the book “Jejak Jurnalis Perempuan”, 94.18% of the respondents are reporter which are more often assigned to look for news in the field. Therefore, there are less than 6% female journalists that work as an editor or as the decision maker in editorial level. Even if there is a female journalist that works as a managing editor, she will be put into a team that is dominated by men (Luviana, 2012). This phenomenon is similar with glass-ceiling theory, in which there is an invisible barrier for women to climb to manager or executive…show more content…
Simone de Beauvoir says that women hold a role and social status that is more related with their reproductive system, hence most of their jobs are the ones included in the private area. Meanwhile, mass media works in the public area, therefore this is can be considered as a social deviation for women (1952). Based on the interview, this condition appeared, due to a lot of disagreements to work as a journalist from people close them. For example, single women who are not allowed to work in journalism by their parents or married women who will usually have their decision renounced by their husband. This social construction has forced half of female journalist to accept that they are fully responsible for domestic things, such as raising children. If they put their career first, for example by working until late at night at the office, their children will be neglected because her husband will refuse to take over her job of taking care children. Women will put aside their desire to work or to actualize themselves, in order to raise their child. Thus, women role in domestic sector is still become huge factors, that are considered by a female journalist in deciding her career and how she wants to develop
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