New York, US (PANA) – The UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) says women continue to remain underrepresented in the media across the world, stressing the need to engage more women in media work to promote gender issues.
The agency, in a statement circulated at the ongoing 59th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women taking place at the UN headquarters in New York, stated that although there has been some improvement over the last decades, but more needs to be done.
It said: “The entertainment and news media have traditionally been dominated by men”, and urged countries to give women more opportunities to exercise leadership in those sectors.
It quoted Hollywood actress Geena Davis, who attended the session, as saying that “the portrayal of female characters in movies is a first step to raising the profile of women in the industry.”
She said men who work in film often do not realize women are underrepresented.
“The good news for us is how stunned they are, they are absolutely shocked, their jaws drop until they are on the ground when they hear the numbers. For example, in crowd scenes in films, only 17 per cent of the characters are female.
“Maybe Hollywood writers think that women do not gather. I think this room here is proof that we do and that we get along very nicely,” she noted.
Women in the media is one of the 12 critical areas of focus in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which was agreed by the international community 20 years ago.
The declaration is considered as the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing women’s rights.
