Women under-represented in media: The missing perspective in COVID-19 news

The study was conducted in India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK and the US.

According to the report, about 100 percent women in the UK are locked out of COVID-19 related decision-making at the national level.

This figure is 93 percent in the US, followed by 86 percent in India, 80 percent in Kenya and 50 percent in South Africa.

Source - AKAS analysis - People in decision making bodies

While men are more likely to die of COVID-19, women are more likely to fall ill and bear adverse effects in terms of their health and well-being. In Kenya, 76 percent of men when compared to 24 percent of women are likely to die from COVID-19 and in India, coronavirus could be fatal for about 64 percent men; however, some latest reports suggest the mortality rate in women is rising.

In western and European countries, this proportion remains almost the same for men and women.

In Scotland, an equal number of men and women have died due to COVID-19.

Although men are more likely to die of COVID-19, women are more likely to be exposed to COVID-19 as they have frontline jobs. Globally, 88 percent of personal care workers, 69 percent of health professionals and 60 percent of food preparation assistants are women.

Source: Gender dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic, World Bank Group, Policy Note, 26th April 2020

Surveys have also shown that women spend more time on domestic care and volunteer work compared to men. The latest data available shows:

In the US, women spent 1.6 times more hours per day than men.

In the UK, twice as many women as men spend time on domestic, care, and volunteer work.

In South Africa, the ratio is 2.4:1

In Sub Saharan Africa, the ratio is 3.7:1

In India, the ratio is 9.7:1; however, this data is old since it is taken from the 1998-99 survey.

Source: World Bank Group (2020) for Sub-Saharan Africa; AKAS analysis of UN statistics for other countries 54 “Gender dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic” World Bank

Women are most likely to seek information about coronavirus on TV news and social media. About 43 percent women in Kenya consume news via television, while 39 percent consumed news via social media.

Over 40 percent percent of women in the UK and US consumed news via TV, compared to 37 percent men.

In South Africa and India, women consumed news mostly on social media, followed by TV and online.

Source: Newman, N., Fletcher, R., Kalogeropoulos, A., & Nielsen, R. (2019). Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2019 (Vol.

Women’s share of quoted voice in online news, both in COVID-19 and other news, between March 1 to April 15 has been marginalized in India, South Africa, and Nigeria.

Source: Media Ecosystems Analysis Group, 2020; N (Publications) = 80; N (Quotes coded for stories with coronavirus) = 1,292; N (Quotes coded for stories without coronavirus) = 808; N (Stories with coronavirus) = 22,384; N (Stories without coronavirus) = 21,780; Period = 01 March 2020 to 15 April 2020

The report also showed that women are less likely to feature as experts and commentators in the COVID-19 related news. The figures are even more staggering - only 19 percent of women, against 77 percent of men, constitute the total number of subject-matter experts.

Twenty-three percent of people quoted in the COVID-19 related literature were politicians, out of which 13 percent were women.

Source: AKAS, 2020a; N (People in the news) = 739; N (Stories) = 175 top 3 ranked coronavirus stories, and top 3 ranked COVID stories using Google’s news search engine; N (Publications) = 30 - top 5 most viewed online news providers in each of the six countries; N (Countries) = 6 - Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, India, USA, UK; Period: March 1, 2020, to April 15, 2020

Women are substantially crowed out by men in their visibility as story protagonists in COVID-19 news coverage in all the analyzed countries.

Worryingly, this crowding out is more common in COVID-19 stories, as compared to non-COVID-19 stories. Women protagonists featured in COVID-19 stories in:

Between March 1, 2020, to April 15, 2020, women likely to feature as protagonists in COVID-19 versus non-COVID-19 news coverage:

26 percent vs. 30 percent women in the UK

19 percent vs. 22 percent in India

15 percent vs. 22 percent in Nigeria,

15 percent vs. 21 percent in Kenya,

15 percent vs. 20 percent in South Africa, and

14 percent vs. 18 percent in the US

The data keeps getting depressing - only about 23 percent of women in COVID-19 news stories were protagonists, out of which, only 17 percent were portrayed as empowered.

According to the report, the US lagged behind other countries in terms of its coverage of women protagonists in the COVID-19 story.

A potential reason for this was President Trump's powerful voice, who was the most mentioned protagonist in COVID-19- related news. His extremely high profile in the news domestically may have crowded out women protagonists disproportionately in the US.

Men protagonists across the six countries were more likely than women to be portrayed as empowered individuals in the news about COVID-19, reinforcing existing patriarchal stereotypes about men being more powerful than women.

Lastly, the news coverage about COVID-19 was skewed towards a masculine reporting style and was, therefore, less likely to appeal to women or meet women’s news needs.

Source: Media Ecosystems Analysis Group, 2020; N (Publications) = 80; N (Stories with coronavirus) = 22,384; Period = 01 March 2020 to 15 April 2020

The gender equality dimension in the news coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic was all but absent, with more than 99 percent of the coverage missing this dimension entirely in all analyzed countries.

Source: Media Ecosystems Analysis Group, 2020; N (Publications) = 11,913; N (Stories) = 1,856,099; Period = 01 March 2020 to 15 April 2020

The gender equality coverage was fronted more by men in all countries except South Africa, where women contributed to 56 percent of total quoted voices.

The women’s voice was least likely to feature in gender equality news stories in Nigeria (24 percent), the US and India (28 percent), Kenya (32 percent), and the UK (44 percent).

To amplify women’s voices in the COVID-19 news coverage, some recommendations suggested are:

Link the COVID-19 stories with other stories that keep women awake at night. Issues such as unemployment, healthcare, poverty, and gender-based crimes are important to women.

The report suggested that we cover the local dimension of the COVID-19 news stories to engage the women further. Micro-angles are anchored in the human interest stories will capture their interest.

Giving voices to the women protagonists and experts like doctors, scientists, parademics, nurses, and school-teachers highly trusted by many, is a sure shot way to keep the women engaged.