‘… it is essential to promote forms of communication that not only challenge the patriarchal nature of media but strive to decentralise and democratise them: to create media that encourage dialogue and debate; media that advance women and peoples' creativity; media that reaffirm women's wisdom and knowledge, and that make people into subjects rather than objects or targets of communication. Media which are responsive to people's needs’

―The ‘Bangkok Declaration’, 1994

‘…Strategic objective J.1: Increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication; Strategic objective J.2.: Promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media’
―Section J of the ‘Beijing Platform for Action’, 1995

Background

WACC’s engagement with gender and media began in 1987 with a series of regional consultations on ‘women and media’ and took place at a time when the role of women in development was slowly being recognized. These consultations culminated in the first-ever global conference on ‘Women Empowering Communication’ held in Bangkok in February 1994, organized by WACC in co-operation with Isis International and the International Women’s Tribune Centre and attended by over 430 people from 80 countries. At the conference, women from all over the world developed a series of strategies and resolutions for empowering women in and through the media in the ‘Bangkok Declaration’. Since then, the Bangkok Declaration and the recommendations contained in Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action of the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women have shaped the aims of the WACC Media and Gender Justice Programme.

WACC supports women’s use of media for their own empowerment and for the development of their communities. It also advocates full and equal participation of women in public communication so that their multiple and complex interests, experiences and realities become part of the public agenda.

WACC undertakes a wide range of activities on gender and communication issues, including advocacy at national, regional and global levels, organizing conferences and training for media workers and communication activists, publishing resource materials, supporting women’s networking, media monitoring and research. Our work has resulted in an extensive network of individuals and organizations concerned with gender and communication issues, from grassroots activists to academics and church related groups and development NGOs. 

Our thematic focus is ‘the fair and balanced gender representation in the mass media as a human right’.

Objectives

The objectives of WACC’s Media and Gender Justice Programme are to:

1. Build the capacity of partner organizations and networks in media monitoring and gender and media advocacy by:

• Supporting partner organizations and networks in their advocacy for the development and adoption of gender-sensitive policy and codes of conduct by the mass media.
• Raising the awareness of media consumers on inequities and imbalances in gender representation in the mass media; and,
• Empowering female media consumers to monitor the media and lobby for reform towards the adoption of gender-sensitive policy;
  

2. Build a strong, engaged, collaborative and broad network with current and new partners by:

• Building a strong, coherent, active and dynamic network that collaborates regularly with each other on common issues of concern;
• Fostering engagement on the concept of ‘fair and balanced gender representation in the media as a human right’ by the wider human rights and sustainable development communities; and,
• Creating linkages and collaborating with new partners from the human rights and sustainable development communities.
  

Project Support

Each year WACC provides support for communication projects from partners across the Global South.

Project support guidelines and application form

List of current projects