During implementation of planned activities, it is essential to constantly revisit the commitments that have been made to integrating gender concerns. As a general rule, there should be a balance of men and women in the implementing team, including in decision making roles. It is also important to ensure team members are regularly updating their knowledge of gender issues and are aware of any shifts or changes in context.

This page outlines how to mainstream gender with regards to:

• Monitoring progress
• Building organisational capacity
• Content production
• Audience

Monitoring progress

BBC Media Action developed gender-sensitivity criteria that can help assess the gender sensitiveness of a programme. It has four categories:

• Gender blind: The specific issues affecting women are not identified at the project design stage. There is no gender analysis of the wider context and it is not clear how women, girls, men and boys are differently affected by a particular issue.
  
• Gender neutral: The different needs of women and men are identified in the project documents or by stakeholders, but are not addressed in the project activities or media content.
  
• Gender sensitive: A robust gender analysis has been undertaken to understand the different barriers facing women, girls, men and boys using gender-disaggregated data. Specific solutions to address the needs and concerns of women and girls are included in the project activities and outcomes.
  
• Gender transformative: There is an attempt to challenge the root causes of gender discrimination by, for example, addressing discriminatory gender norms, stereotypes and unequal power relationships. Activities might focus on fulfilling strategic needs that improve the position of women and girls in society.

(From BBC Media Action gender-sensitivity criteria)

You can use the above criteria to assess how your programme has integrated gender concerns, and make improvements. The minimum standard should be for a programme to be ‘gender sensitive’; ideally all programmes should be ‘gender transformative’.

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Building organisational capacity

During the implementation of a programme it is important that your (media) organisation has sufficient capacity to mainstream gender. Think about:

• How is the organisation working towards gender equality within its own structures and the media content it produces?
• What is the gender composition of the workforce of the organisation?
• What is the level of knowledge and experience of employees with regards to gender?
• Is there a gender policy? Who was involved in developing it?
• What facilities and arrangements are in place to promote and protect gender equality in the workplace?
• What mechanisms are in place to appropriately deal with gender related incidents and problems?
• Who are the ‘champions’ for gender equality in the organisation?

Read more

Go to the page gender equality in the workplace for more strategies to promote gender equality in organisations.

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Content production

When implementing activities related to the production of media content, it is important that content is produced in a gender-sensitive way. Go to the page on gender-sensitive reporting to learn more about how to do this.

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Audience

It is valuable to consider the demographics of audiences reached through media content produced within a programme. For example:

• How many women and men have been (regularly) reached? What do we know about them (age, education level, socio-economic status, access to media, location)?
• Are the timings of the broadcasts suitable for women, girls, men and boys? Who in families decides on television/radio/phone access?
• What do audience members of different genders find helpful, unhelpful and inspiring? What media content do they like least and why?
• What do audience members of different genders see as the gaps in programme content? What topics would they like to see more of and less of?
• Which formats are most effective in reaching women and girls? Is there anything you should/could do to increase audiences of women and girls?

Learn more

These and other guidelines can be found in the BBC Media Action learning and review checklist)