Women Meeting the Challenge: A Handbook for Media Leadership
Introduction

In Africa, as elsewhere, the news is seldom managed or presented by, for or about women. In all forms of news media, decisions are most often made by men. When women are excluded from decision-making within the news, the media fails to reflect the issues and perspectives that are important to a majority of society.

With the social, cultural and economic changes sweeping Africa today, more opportunities have opened for women to move into positions from which they can have an impact on the content of news coverage. Leadership is indeed becoming more accessible to women. Yet many women are not prepared to take on the challenges of leadership or have a good grasp of how to maintain a position of authority. Generally, women's socialisation and education do not incorporate a basic knowledge of the skills necessary to move into leadership, or an understanding of the individual's relationship with power and power structures. Women with considerable talent and ambition continue to be frustrated in their efforts to move into decision-making roles in the news media.

In response to these concerns, the AWMC established a programme designed to help women gain equality in the newsroom through educational workshops and networking. The Carole Simpson Leadership Institute (CSLI), named for the American journalist whose generous donation provided seed funding for the institute, was launched with a four-day seminar in November, 1998. Out of this gathering of 42 women from 13 African countries came ideas, discussions and strategies on how African women can break through the cultural, social and gender barriers that prevent them from reaching their leadership potential.

Just three months after attending the leadership training programme, a woman from Zimbabwe wrote, "For the first time I realized my self worth and I am much more assertive. I had lacked confidence in myself because I had been side-lined for a very long time." After returning from the programme she acted on her career plan and her new feelings of empowerment, and was soon after given a promotion, becoming the first woman to hold the position of deputy chief editor at her newspaper.