Six things I learnt at the CSW 68 'Catalysts for change: breaking down gender stereotypes in media and advertising' panel

As a United Nations Women UK delegate for the 68th Commission on the Status of Women this year, I've been attending some facinating events this week. Yesterday I attended (virtually, alas no NYC trip for me) a fascinating panel on ''Catalysts for change: breaking down gender stereotypes in media and advertising'. Speakers included Sarah Macharia , José Miguel Campi-Portaluppi (He, Him, él) , Alejandro Fiecconi , Caleb Goodman and Bj?rn Erik Thon . There is a lot of work to be done, both in improving representation (not just of women, but of other marginalised groups) and in dismantling gender stereotypes. And this work takes the dedication of women and men across the media, and beyond. Here I wanted to outline six things the panellists discusing that I found particularly interesting. I'd love to hear your thoughts, particularly if you are working in advertising and the media.

We’re making progress on gender equality in the news media, but it’s SLOW

In the almost 30 years the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) has been performing its gender equality pulse check progress has been steady but slow. Worryingly, at the current rate of change it will take another seven decades to close the gender gap in news media.

Sarah Macharia explained that every five years since 1995, GMMP research has taken the pulse of selected indicators of gender in the news media, including women’s presence in relation to men, gender bias and stereotypes in news stories and other content. The most recent edition — the 6th — took place in 2020.??

While in 1995 they found that only 17% of those seen, heard or discussed in news media were women, 25 years later (at the pulse check in 2020) this has only reached 25%. So, this number still needs to double in order for us to reach gender equity. And their findings highlight that legacy and digital media are performing the same, with the news media continuing to be far from inclusive, particularly for those with intersecting identities (for example, those with disabilities, immigrants, indigenous populations, minority ethnic groups, LGBTQIA+ people).

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We’re still seeing a near absence of reporting on GBV in the news media

Sarah also highlighted the absence of stories relating to gender based violence (GBV) in the news media. In fact, stories relating to GBV make up less than 1% of stories in the news media, and 70-90% of these stories that do make it into the media either reinforce or do nothing to address gender stereotypes. GBV is a human rights violation largely affecting women and girls, and it continues to be normalised in and through mainstream media. This was probably the part of the session I found most demotivating and concerning, and I didn't feel there was any real discussion about how this might be addressed - perhaps this is what the panel was missing, accountable voices from the news media, as well as CSOs who work to keep them accountable.

We need to meet people (particularly young men) where they are, with simple messages of change

José Miguel Campi-Portaluppi (He, Him, él) , the Director of Communications at Equimondo spoke about the need to challenge toxic masculinity with healthy models of it what is means to be a man. He talked about how so many of these conversations are taking place online – on social media platforms, in forums, in fantasy football leagues. He highlighted just how much media has changed, emphasised by the fact that the Superbowl was watched by 122 million people while Mr Beast’s channel on YouTube has almost double those viewing figures.

He also spoke about prolific misogynistic influencers, such as Andrew Tate, having a clear and simple message, delivered in a formulaic way repeatedly. This simple messaging has great cut through, particularly with young men. And so if we want to offer an alternative, healthier model of masculinity, we need the messaging to be just as clear. We need to focus on what this looks like, and reach an agreement on the basic principles of health masculinity, removing jargon, with “less expectation of fitting everything we want to say into 140 characters”.

Research first

All the speakers on the panel underlined the importance of research first. Sarah spoke about the important media monitoring her organsation does at regular intervals, as well as the ongoing ?work done by CSOs in this space, keeping media organisations and news outlets, as well as advertisers accountable. Similarly, José said understanding the state of the media and current depictions of masculinity was key to Equimondo’s work. Alejandro Fiecconi from 联合利华 attributed much of the success of the Dove Men campaigns over the last 14 years to their heavy investment in user and audience insights, which led them to building campaigns around the masculine ability to care, and the strength that comes with it. This positive social messaging has also led to increased brand loyalty.

Capacity development matters and can be transformative

When talking about the advertising industry’s role in breaking down gender stereotypes Caleb Goodman . Chief Operating Officer of Canadian advertising agency Rethink, highlighted the role training and capacity played within his own organisation. Rethink employees receive training on unconscious biases and micro aggressions, as well as training on compassionate candour. The combination of these two approaches means advertising executives and creatives will hopefully be able to notice some of the unconscious predjudices they hold themselves as well as allow team members to feel comfortable flagging issues with representation in advertising, as they are able to challenge directly in a safe environment. The agency also introduced a peer review system (not unlike academia) to also allow for feedback from the wider team. All of these actions aim towards advertising representation which is more likely to break down gender stereotypes and promote gender equality.

Regulation will help but it’s not a silver bullet

All the panelists discussed the importance of legislation in the media, but that it was not the single solution. Sarah pointed out that statutory regulation on gender in media internationally is scarce. Bjorn Erik Thon spoke about the success Norway has had as early introducers of legislation on representation of gender in the media, and that they continue to build on this strong tradition (however, he was concerned about the rise of AI and it’s power of manipulation and to enforce stereotypes. He urged law makers to follow its development very carefully, acting now to regulate it) - tackling retouching, image manipulation, as well as regulating the advertising of cosmetic surgery and procedures.

The panelists were in agreement that regulation alone would not solve the problem, but that we needed a combined approach – societal change aimed at deconstructing gender stereotypes and promoting gender equality where pivotal in our digital age where traditional solutions no longer held the same sway. But this needs to be done alongside co-regulation, a halfway house between full statutory regulation and industry self-regulation.

?Final thoughts and reflections

I found it a fascinating conversation to listen to. It is somewhat daunting to look at what still needs to be done, but also inspiring to see the work that is been undertaken to root out gender stereotypes and particularly tackle toxic masculinity. I would have liked to hear from news organisations about their portrayls of women in the news media, and how they are working to address that through diverse hiring, editorial standards and beyond, and so I feel like while Sarah painted a detailed picture of where we were in 2020, it would be good to look how (if at all) organisations are working to address this gender gap in representation. But overall, I have a feeling this is how most of these sessions will leave me feeling - a little intimidated, a lot inspired, with many more questions, but ready to get to work.