The Study Of Role Given To Women Journalists’ At Ebc

Abstract

The study of role that given to female journalists’ role at EBC in light of ‘critical mass’ and‘glass ceiling’ as underpinning theoretical frameworks was the aim of this study. The design of the study data were collected through self completion questionnaires that were answered by 71 femalejournalists working in Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation. In addition, five individual interviews were conducted toenrich the data obtained from the survey. Analysis of data showed that theentrance of women to the media in Ethiopia is scanty, for various reasons, compared to the average of women journalists working in the media worldwide, and that of journalists in many African and Latin American countries. It was alsoknown that it is rare to see women journalists penetrating to high decision makingpositions as the path is greasy and steep. The findings also suggest that journalismgenerally preferred by young, single, well-educated women who do not intend tostay long in the career because of family pressure and inconvenient workingconditions. Women’s’ feelings about what assignments to undertake does not differ from their male colleague but at the issue of women and women affair women seems control over it because the feeling of the issue is mutual. Women’s harassment in the media should not be overlooked as a sizable numberof respondents, were found to have faced sexual harassment, mostly from news source. The study concluded that the number of female journalist is not proportion with that of men journalists, therefore the media managers have to work hard to increase their role in the media.