Have you noticed this while listening to the radio?

I've been employed by a community radio station full-time for about four years, and I can attest to the fact that local listeners differ from those in urban, or to put it another way, they have slightly different needs and preferences than those of urban media consumers.

Working as a reporter and now as an editor has been fun for me because it's a unique experience that gave me a new perspective on our community and brought me closer to the community's heart.

I've been conducting listener surveys over the years, which gives me a chance to interact with and learn from Pangani FM audiences.

I've been asking questions on these surveys for years to gain insight into why women don't contribute as much to radio programs as men do.

Despite having programs that specifically call women, I would still find it difficult to persuade them to call the programs; instead, more men would call than women would.

I recall purposefully producing a series of programs aimed directly at facilitating women's full participation in the 2019 local elections and even the 2020 general elections, which included dialogues from interviews we conducted with women, leaders of all major political parties in Tanzania, experts, and other credible sources.

Even though these interactive radio themes were aimed specifically at women, men dominated women in calls and SMS.

Responses I received last year about women and their engagement in interactive radio programs got me thinking about how the gender gap in contributing to local media spaces can spread even more if no immediate action is taken to elevate women's roles.

When I asked who controls the radio in the house, the majority of the answers were men, and when I asked why, they said things like "simply because he is the one who bought it" or "he is the leader of the family." Others responded that it is because women are usually too preoccupied with housework to listen to or control the radio. They only have control over the radio when men aren’t at home.

I also asked them why they don't call or send SMS as men do during the shows, and answers were like "buying airtime is not a priority because of our financial situations," "airtime costs are getting too high for them," and "they can't compete with men in radio discussions because men are breadwinners in most households, so it's easy for them to spend on buying airtime."

Some women told us that when they share their opinions on radio programs, they face threats and questions from their husbands/men; in these circumstances, they are forced to send anonymous comments (without indicating who they are or where they send that SMS from).

These insights prompted me to consult with colleagues from other community radio stations in Tanzania's mainland and Zanzibar, and their findings were consistent with mine.

Before I started working for a radio station, I was a very active listener of radio broadcastings, a "radio head," if you will, and as I reflect on my memories, I realize that this has been an issue for a long time, with women's contributions rarely approaching those of men in radio conversations.

Now I challenge you to conduct your observations on mainstream media and share with me your observations regarding the issue.

This seems like a problem to me.

It's an issue that has to be resolved since radio broadcasting is still the most popular form of media in the nation. If women aren't interested in sharing their thoughts, a community may be influenced by a single, gender-biased viewpoint. The objective of gender equality is made more difficult as a result.

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/

Since it was formed to sustain https://www.uzikwasa.or.tz/ interventions, the station I work on (Pangani FM) is the most gender-sensitive medium I know, and it's even praised by multiple scholars for that reputation. For example, the 2019 YEARBOOK ON MEDIA QUALITY IN TANZANIA named Pangani FM the number-one radio station in the country for its extraordinary, high performance in including women in its programs: "Pangani FM with 88% of programs having two or more female sources, followed by Micheweni FM with 58%, and Dodoma FM with 39%." "National radio stations with the lowest ratings in this category were Clouds FM (11%), Radio One (13%), and ZBC Radio (14%)."

So, if Pangani FM is seeing a gender imbalance in radio debates between men and women, what about other radio stations? What are their determined numbers? Or is this issue being ignored? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.