Wouldn’t it be great if in 2025 we didn’t have to speak or write about gender discrimination any more? But it hasn’t gone anywhere and we still need to look at, see and address the issue.
Gender discrimination exists in all professional fields and the world of news media is no different at all. It may be a field that is meant to call out injustice and highlight what is going wrong. But there is a lot that needs to be done.
Back in the 1980s, I interned at a newspaper in Bengaluru city. And like hundreds of interns before or since, on completion of the internship, I asked if there was a possibility of a full time job. The editor replied, “We already have too many women on the desk. You can’t put them on night shift.” It was a different era and I was so young. I quietly gave up and walked out. At a job interview in another organisation a little later, I was asked if I was going to get married soon - the implication being that marriage could make me quit my job. Decades on, the openness of such statements may have come down - which may be some small progress. But the ideology behind them is, I am sure, still thriving.
There have been high profile cases involving allegations of sexual harassment and assault in media houses. M J Akbar, Tarun Tejpal are names which surfaced. And there are many others cases which don’t come to light or make it to the news because of the code of silence or because the protagonists are not so well known.
At a recent meet of women journalists in Kerala, one woman spoke to me of how she had left her job because of persistent harassment and a lack of adequate response by the organisation. The alleged aggressor in her case? The head of HR, a department meant to make the life of an employee better.
I spent most of my full time television career in NDTV and was on the internal committee to look into sexual harassment cases for a couple of years. NDTV was probably not a typical example of a media house as there were many women in senior positions and I can say that within the organisation, I felt no discrimination over the years on the basis of my gender. But my personal experience can in no way be considered representative of the situation in private media as a whole.
The workplace is not just your own organisation but also involves places your work takes you. And with TV journalism involving so much work in the field there have been many upsetting times. In Bengaluru, at a party office during the election of a new party president, I faced so much crowding and touching that I literally climbed onto the windowsill of the building to get away from the party workers.
Once at a political rally, I requested an on duty policeman to walk me safely a short distance through the crowd to the OB van as I had to give the team there a tape for uplink. He refused.
A very valid fear of what would happen if I waded into a crowd sometimes kept me back from pushing through to a newsmaker. I had understanding colleagues in the camerapersons who in such situations would take the mike from me and push through the crowd themselves. But it meant that there were cases when I couldn’t put my own questions directly to the newsmaker.
Travelling in remote places which did not have any good hotels, we would need to stay wherever we could. And I know I am not the only woman traveller to push a chair against the door of a hotel or lodge room before settling in for the night. I always want a bolt or a chain on the door; doors without those which can be unlocked easily from the outside are unnerving for women.
There is also the boys club attitude - women reporters may be less likely to hang around male sources for a late drink where a lot of inside information may be shared. One press secretary to a Karnataka chief minister on a press tour was horrified when I joined him and a group of male reporters. The reason - he and some others were holding drinks!
Decades on, the problems persist. Will things get better? For this we first need the awareness and acknowledgement that discrimination still exists. Programmes that educate and sensitise a workplace - something which is being done compulsorily in some organisations. Systems in place that can make women feel safer and more valued - and that address and remedy issues of discrimination and harassment. And above all - the most difficult - a change in mindset.
Here’s hoping.
Maya Sharma is a veteran television journalist with over 30 years of experience as a reporter, anchor, and documentary filmmaker. She was part of India's first live election telecast in 1989 and has covered major political and breaking news events across India and globally. From the 2004 tsunami to international summits and the Occupy Wall Street protests, her reporting spans diverse subjects.
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