Across the globe, media industries suffer from a significant gender pay gap and gender-based discrimination and harassment. Women are underrepresented in media professions in some contexts, a challenge particularly evident at the decision-making level. This is aggravated by inequalities – in newsrooms and society – that are increasingly mirrored in media content wherein women and men are often framed in stereotypical ways.
This briefing note is designed to give readers a basic understanding of the role of media regulatory and self-regulatory systems in promoting gender equality and inclusion. It highlights the main self- and regulatory systems that reflect or affect the role of media – from the perspective of gender – and will offer a basic understanding to inspire the reader to take action and initiate change in the field. The final goal is to help inspire the introduction of a co-regulatory system wherein both regulation and self-regulation models combine to improve women’s human rights and gender equality in and through media, telecommunications, and digital platforms.