This presentation is part of online session for Foundation Course for SNDTWU college students which will be delivered from WizIQ platform in few hours from now.

1. Portrayals of Women in Media-
Indian Context
30th September 2014
Mira K Desai, PhD
Associate Professor and I/C Head
University Department of Extension Education
SNDT Women’s University
Juhu Campus, Mumbai

2. Outline for the Day
• Society- Men and Women and third Gender
• Women in Indian society
• What and Which of Media?
• Women and Media
• How are women portrayed in media?
• Role-Qualities-Behaviour-Valuation of Sexes =
Social construction of Gender
• What happens because of such portrayals?
• Conclusion

3. 1,18,59,58,045 people

4. 50%
Women
Source: http://colleenandmichael.blogspot.in/2010/11/amritsar-funny-walks-and-holy-place.html

5. SOCIETY
MEN

6. MAN WOMAN

7. Third Gender

8. INDIAN
WOMEN

9. Women like YOU and Me!!

10. We all Consume MEDIA……

11. MEDIA can be for…….
Individual
Group
Mass

12. Audio- Visual
Media

13. Audio Media

14. Visual
Media

15. Visual Media

16. Out Of
House Media

17. Out of House Media

18. New Media

19. Media & Entertainment Industry…??!!
• Advertising {OOH, Direct marketing, PR…}
• Broadcast, Cable, DTH, IPTV
• Filmed Entertainment
• Print- Newspapers, Magazines
• Publishing- Books
• Radio
• Upcoming convergent platforms- Mobile
and telecom, Gaming, Internet & Social
networking….

20. Indian Media Journey in Numbers
MEDIA THEN NOW
Newspapers
and Periodicals
3000 in 1947 including
300 dailies
93,985 registered
publications by Dec 2012
Television Two-hour/day
transmission on ONE
channel and 41 TV Sets
in 1962
850 channels with 24X7
telecast and from 127
million in 2008 to 253
million households in 2010
Films 280 films in 1947 and
had 150 theatres in
1921
1250 productions in 2010
having 13000 Cinema halls
Radio 1 AM radio channel in
1947
Multiple Stations: AM ,
FM, Community, Campus
Internet Inception in 1995, 4.55
million users in 2004
160 ISPs, 71 million
‘claimed’ users

21. Women - Media
• Women who work in Media (professionals)
• Women who use Media (as audiences)
• Women as shown in Media (subjects)
• Women’s media ( media created by
women)
• Women who work for those who work in
media (Support services- makeup, hair,
catering, stylists, etc.)

22. WOMEN as MEDIA Audiences

23. Women in Audio Visual Media
• ACTRESSES: Who are TV/Films characters
• NEWS-PRESENTERS: Those who are anchors,
read/write news, interviews people on screen
• PRODUCERS & DIRECTORS: Women who
make TV/Film/Newspaper content
• TECHNICIANS: Women camerapersons,
sound-engineers, assistants, workers
• NEWS SUBJECTS: Any woman shown as news
subject (who can be any woman)

24. Women as Performers
In front of Camera - Behind Camera
With lots of clothes - Without clothes

25. Women as
Presenters

26. Women as
Technicians

27. Women as News Subjects

28. GMMP- Gender Media Monitoring
Project (www.whomakesnews.org)
• FOUR: 1995, 2000, 2005, 2009/10
• GMMP 2009/10 on 10 November 2009
• Volunteer groups in 130 countries across the
world monitored national newspapers,
listened to radio newscasts and watched local
television
• Findings of the representation and portrayal
of women and men in news media around the
world across cultures/languages/countries

29. WOMEN in NEWS….as
News
Providers/
Sources
Media
Professionals
News
Subjects
Portrayal in news

30. GMMP 2009/10
• Sample: 6,902 news items and 14,044 news subjects,
including people interviewed in the news.
• Themes: Politics/government dominate the biggest chunk
of coverage (27% of the total number of stories),
crime/violence comes second at 20%, and the economy
third at 18%.
• People: 24% of the people interviewed, heard, seen or read
about in mainstream broadcast and print news are female;
only 16% of all stories focus specifically on women.
• Change: GMMP 1995 recorded only 17% of the people in
the news were women which became 24%. ONLY 7% rise in
visibility of women in last 15 years.

31. Global – Local….GMMP 2010
GMMP
Global
GMMP
India
GMMP
Mumbai
News subjects Women
Males
24%
76%
22%
78%
20%
74%
Women news reporters 37% 34% 14%
Women central stories 13% 12% 8%
Gender policy reference 10% 9% 6%
Highlighting G. equality 6% 5% 8%

32. ROLES attached to SEX
WOMEN
• Mother
• Wife
• Sister
• Daughter
• Daughter-in-law
• Mother-in-law
• Sister-in-law
MEN
• Father
• Husband
• Brother
• Son
• Son-in-law
• Father-in-law
• Brother-in-law

33. QUALITIES expected of SEXES
WOMEN
• Passive
• Submissive
• Domesticated
• Delicate
• Pretty
• Cute
• Caring
MEN
• Active
• Aggressive
• Daring
• Stud
• Strong
• Tough
• In-Charge

34. Behaviour expected from SEX
WOMEN
• Agree with what
others say
• Behave as
expected in a
given role
• Defined
boundaries of
movement
MEN
• Take control of
situation
• Lead others and
given discounts to
women as stupid
• Can do anything

35. Valuation attached to SEX
WOMEN
• What they do in
house is not of
much value
• If she is working
outside and
independent
she is ignoring
family
MEN
• IF they do any
work in house
they are
obliging women
• If he is working
from home,
helping wife, he
is good husband

36. On TELEVISION ……

37. IN
REAL
…LIFE

38. Why difference in these women!!!
• Media likes to show women as suffering,
sacrificing, submissive, silent, subdued,
passive individual driven by others.
• Media creates stereotypes of mother-daughter-
wife-sister which fits into
subordinate roles.
• Media promotes women as body- worker
without strength- person without own power.

39. Social construction of Gender
INSTITUTIONS
• Family
• Education
• Religion
• Caste
• State
• Media
• Market
ISSUES
Role
Qualities
Behaviour
Valuation
CONTROLS
• Fertility
• Labour
• Mobility
• Property
• Resources
• Sexuality

40. MEDIA- What does it do?
• MIRRORs the Society…..
• Creates MARKET by selling you ideas,
products, services…..
• MEDIATES experiences of its audiences….
• Provides MYTHs…..Circulates and
sustains them……
• CREATES definitions of NORMAL

41. Portrayals of Women
• Mainly as news subjects
• Sensationalisation and objectification
• Glorified in certain roles like mothers
• Most often as a body rather than a PERSON
• Usually to support the sex stereotypes
• Usually silent, passive, not important person
• Most often shown in house and if shown
outside house than in domesticated roles

42. Women as Communicators
• Novelists
• Journalists
• Writers
• Directors
• Producers
• Financers
• Painters
• Sculpture artists
• Poets
• Singers
• Dancers
• Actresses
• Folk Artists
• Presenters
• Anchors
• Photographers

43. Women as Communicators

44. Women Communicators

45. Media to Women
• Media creates definitions about:
What women should wear?
When and where women should move?
How should women behave?
• Media stereotypes Gender realities.
• Media perpetuates Gender existences.
• Media conditions gendered experiences.

46. Media creates Gender definitions
• Man should be metro-sexual.
• Woman should be sexy.
• Woman should be size ZERO.
• Girls are cute/vulnerable/sweet.
• Man can/should control women.
• Man is the head of the household.
• Woman have to/must marry.

47. Media stereotypes Gender realities
• Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law
always fight, What about Father –Son?
• Women can’t be friends to each other,
how many friendships do you have!!
• Husband has a ‘rights’ over the wife,
What about rights of the wife?
• Children are mother’s responsibility, are
not they joint responsibility?

48. Media perpetuates Gender existences
• Women are dying to get male attention.
• Women need to look ‘beautiful’.
• Woman are body and man are brain.
• Woman can not survive without man.
• When woman say NO it is yes?
• Woman has no SAY in decisions of her life!
• Woman’s first priority is HOME.

49. Indian Television….
• More diverse portrayals
• Soaps reinforce culture maintenance
responsibilities on women and stereotypes
• News objectifies women and highlights
expected roles
• Women as victims and women against
women are highlighted

50. Indian Films…..
• Commodification………..Stereotyping…………..
Objectification…….Role setting
• Setting parameters of qualities, behaviour,
valuation for men-women
• Lesser proportion of films showing women
in ‘control’ of their life
• Women directors did not make much
difference but the change is due…..

51. New Media: Ray of HOPE
• New media- Internet, mobile provides
space for women
• Women are voicing, making issues
visible, changing direction of discourses
• Newer occupations are emerging- food
bloggers, social media specialists, Cross-country
researchers, Doctors without
borders, Alternate Media reporters…..

52. What happens because of such
Portrayals?
• Invisibility of women
• Marginalisation of women’s work
• Socialisation of young girls/women
• Definitions of ‘NORMal’
• Provides public sanction to men
• Numbness or Desensitisation of people
towards women and women’s issues

53. We must……

54. Gender N Media: Resources
• Media and Gender: A Scholarly Agenda for the Global
Alliance on Media and Gender, co-edited by IAMCR and
UNESCO, 2013 URL:
http://iamcr.org/publications/special/media-and-gender
• Gender-Sensitive Indicators for Media: Draft Framework
of Indicators to Gauge Gender Sensitivity in Media
Operations and Content- March 2012, URL:
http://www.unesco.org/new/
• Getting the balance right: Gender equality in journalism,
2009, URL: http://portal.unesco.org
• Gender sensitivity: a training manual for sensitizing
education managers, curriculum and material developers
and media professionals to gender concerns, 2004 URL:
www.unesco.org

55. How should the Portrayal be?
• Women as human being
• Women having her aspirations, needs, life
• Women as equal partners of civilization
• Women respected for ‘what she is’ rather than
‘what she should be’
• Society having men and women as equal
partners
• Changing not only the media but also the
‘minds’

56. THANK YOU
for your TIME
feel free to connect@
drmiradesai@gmail.com
sndtmedia@hotmail.com