The media have muted the voices of women during COVID-19: can the tide be turned?
THEODORA DAME ADJIN-TETTEY, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Rhodes University COVID-19 has distressed societies to the core. Among the fault lines, it has exposed is the fact that gender bias remains rampant in news coverage. A recent special report – The Missing Perspectives of Women in COVID-19 News – shows that too few women experts have been quoted on the pandemic in the media. The study looked at South Africa, Kenya, India, Nigeria, the US and the UK. Put together by the International Women’s Media Foundation and commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the report found that even when a…