The CABAR.asia Media School together with editor-in-chief of Kloop.kg Anna Kapushenko prepared cards for you about how to prepare materials about women’s rights. Not on the threshold of the International Women’s Day, but at any other time.
Definitely, yes. Despite the fact that half of the humankind are women, they are still restricted in their rights across the world and gender equality is still too far away – according to some estimates, it can take 80 to 100 years to achieve it.
The problem is that the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown us back too far – all experts share the opinion that the world has more manifestations of gender inequality, while the pandemic-related economic recession has more impact on women.
Speaking about Kyrgyzstan, we can write and report tirelessly about women who are discriminated in their rights as we live in the country with patriarchal structure.
We need to write about violations of women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan because the society still does not admit the issue. If you still think that it is a fringe concern, here are some shocking facts:
- Eight of ten homicides of women in Kyrgyzstan are committed by men.
- A woman earns 72 som per every 100 som earned by a man.
- 96 per cent of those guilty of domestic violence are men. Those are mainly husbands who beat their wives.
- Working women in Kyrgyzstan spend three times more time than man on household duties.
In addition to restriction of women’s rights, they are often blamed for everything. For example, in Kyrgyzstan a woman is deprived of a basic right to walk safely on the streets, especially at night. If anything happens to her during such a walk – she could be attacked, harassed, raped or killed – the society wonders what she was doing outside at night. However, there are often no questions to the male criminal. This is victim blaming, i.e. when the victim is held responsible for the committed crime. Such situations clearly show that we should speak about women’s discrimination and restriction of their rights.
The question sounds rather absurd because women should have absolutely the same rights as men. But it is not so in Kyrgyzstan.
First, our country needs to ensure such basic rights as right to life and right to security of person. Women must be protected from any forms of gender-based violence – domestic abuse, rapes, forced marriage, harassment. Women, just like men, must have an opportunity to look and dress as they want, a woman’s appearance should not cause any violence from men.
Then, we should strive for women having salaries equal to men’s and working at any field they want. We all know that more men than women have high-paying jobs. There are many reasons for that, including stereotypes that women may not be good surgeons, programmers, engineers, etc. Women have the same right to financial wellbeing and choice of an occupation as men do.
In fact, this is one more fact proving the inequality between men and women.
Yes, this list was made up by the state allegedly for the sake of women’s health. As we all know, the Soviet Union, which made up the list, was based on certain principles. The Soviet empire needed workforce and healthy people who were able to replicate.
Thus, the infrastructure left as the Soviet heritage – kindergartens and schools in residential neighbourhoods – was built not because the government took care of women’s comfort, but because a woman can work all day if her child attends a kindergarten. And the list of banned professions was made up mainly to control the reproductive system of women and increase the birth rate.
Most often, journalists write about domestic violence, homicides of women. The problem here is not about the media. The problem is that the state mechanism of women’s protection from violence does not work. As long as the domestic violence situation does not change, or as long as the law enforcement bodies do not stop ignoring the problem by saying something like ‘if he beats you, it means he loves you,’ ‘lovers’ tiffs are harmless,’ and so on, journalists will keep on writing about it. It’s high time for everyone to understand that the natural result of continuous systematic domestic violence is homicide. An abuser often kills a woman, and a woman rarely kills the abuser in an attempt to survive.
Anything. About women working mainly in the social sphere – education or medicine. At that, they rarely hold executive and prestigious posts even in these spheres.
About women dedicating much time to house cleaning, which distracts her from her career development.
About women holding political offices.
About the pandemic that increased the women’s burden.
About women in Kyrgyzstan who cannot afford contraceptives, especially in rural areas.
About early marriages and early pregnancies, maternal mortality.
In fact, a woman in our country is in a vulnerable position in any sphere and this situation does not change for years.
You should show various role models of successful women, so that girls could see that they could be prosperous in future, earn as much as men. You should show various life scenarios for women – the society shows only one scenario for women now: she has to get married after 20, or else she would be called a “spinster”, she has to give birth to at least two children before she’s 30, or else she would be called an “older parturient”, she has to marry off all her children by the time she’s 50, and then become a grandmother taking care of her grandchildren. However, there are many women in this world who have realised their potential in absolutely different roles.
Of course, not. You should not focus on the fact that the heroine is not only successful in business, career, science, but also is a good housewife. When we see a man who is a professional of the highest calibre, we don’t even think of asking him about his family or children. But when it comes to women, such questions immediately come to mind.
Anyway, we should not fix, but get rid of stereotypes that a woman means nothing without husband, that she is not successful without a child. Tell stories about child-free women who are satisfied with their life, about women who prefer to stay single and be happy alone, without looking to anyone. Show the audience that there’s always a choice.
Glass ceiling means invisible barriers both in commercial companies and authorities that prevent women from obtaining upper-level positions.
There are many informal rules of the game that a women can’t follow just because she is a woman. Men in the men’s world can easily come to terms with each other: they can either discuss some issues in an informal setting – in a sauna, or conduct private negotiations at their office. If a woman tries to use of these options to achieve her career goals, she would rather be slut-shamed.
All these barriers hold women at lower-level positions artificially. And when women are told that they need to work a lot to become successful, it’s nonsense; it doesn’t work like this in Kyrgyzstan.
Feminists have been doing this for decades, and it has significantly improved the women’s position in the world.
However, it should not be only talked about in the media, it should be demonstrated in educational institutions, in families because all unfair stereotypes about women arise there.
For example, families should not raise boys and girls differently, when boys may do anything and girls must be modest, accommodating, and learn how to cook and clean the house. Girls are being convinced since childhood that if they don’t cook well and clean the house, they will be useless. In fact, now our families raise housekeepers who are not paid for their extra work.
It’s ridiculous when men talk seriously about whether they should help their mothers and wives around the house. The word “help” is not the right word here as it implies that doing laundry, cleaning and cooking are “female jobs.” Here, it is reasonable to speak about 50/50 division of household chores as it’s not only the woman who makes a mess at home, it’s not only woman’s clothing that should be washed, and it’s not only woman who needs to eat.
Not only journalists but also school and family must fight body shaming. There are too many demands to women in this world, and one of them is a beautiful body. But the beauty standards forced on us by the society are often false and it’s very hard to achieve them in real life. These subjective standards lead to the fact that women feel insecure and do harm to their health by numerous diets in an attempt to lose weight, for example.
Previously, a woman was thought to be beautiful for a man. Now the beauty industry tells women that they need to be beautiful for themselves. And this mantra sounds tempting, given that it’s not profitable for the beauty industry to lose billions of dollars just because women have suddenly become self-sufficient and have learned to love themselves and their bodies as they are.
You must. Now we are offered, if not to say forced, the model of the society where a woman must have a family and children. However, women are not told what problems they can face if they want, for example, to carry and bear a child.
No one says that punitive gynaecology still exists. It manifests itself when the woman in labour screams with pain and doctors say to her something like, “Be strong! You liked to spread your legs, huh?” No one tells about how to prevent unwanted pregnancy as sex and all related topics, including contraception, are tabooed. No one warns a woman that she could be not ready to have a child. No one tells a woman that raising a child is very expensive, and for life. Family life and childbirth are very romanticised things.
Journalists can write about all these things, thus helping many women.
First, give up on obsolete milestones for what a woman should be. In other words, if you write about a successful woman, do not include any information about her family into the story. If your heroine wants to tell about it, let her do it, but do not emphasise it.
Also, try to call things by their proper names. For example, if you write that a husband killed his wife, do not call the victim the “dead” because she is the “killed”, do not call it a crime based on domestic quarrel as it is the murder.
Do not write the way of the woman’s killing in vivid details, it will lead to the fact that other abusers can take note of the scheme of actions after reading your text.
If a man makes love to a girl before she reaches full age, it is a rape. And do not try to justify the rapist saying that it’s the girl who provoked the man. You should understand here that responsibility for these actions rests with the adult because the underage person cannot make balanced decisions and take into account all risks. This responsibility is set forth in the Criminal Code.
In general, the key rule to cover gender-sensitive topics is to do no harm to your heroine by shocking photos, inappropriate phrases and victim blaming. Try to be empathic, as the woman has mastered her fear to tell you the story. If the story is about violence, she was again hurt by telling it to you. Therefore, you should cover such topics as gently as possible.
Title photo: kloop.kg
This publication was produced as part of the mentorship programme under the Development of New Media and Digital Journalism in Central Asia project delivered by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) with support from the UK Government. It does not necessarily reflect the official views of IWPR or the UK Government
If you have found a spelling error, please, notify us by selecting that text and pressing Ctrl+Enter.
