‘Women on radio a potent force in reaching poorest of the poor’

This is an updated version of the article “Are women limited only to ‘household’ themes on community radio?” published in BukidnonNews.net on Feb. 8, 2014.

By Walter I. Balane/BukidnonNews.net

MALAYBALAY CITY (Bukidnon News/08 February 2014) There should be more women on radio because they can appeal to audiences beyond the reach of government and other institutions, an educator on community radio in Bukidnon said.

And yet, Dr. Lourdes G. De la Torre, head of the committee on community education of the Piniyalan Reporting Governance Project in Bukidnon province said on Feb. 8, 2014 over a radio program in dxDB that most women on community radio are given roles that are only “extensions” of their conventional household roles.

She appealed to local government units, which have resources for women, to direct their attention and to channel their funding to projects that enhance women’s capacity to assume a more active role in the education and empowerment of their communities.

She cited the five percent mandatory share from LGUs’ internal revenue allotment for Gender and Development. LGUs should maximize the use of these resources to address crucial issues affecting women instead of using the funds just to buy shirts for women’s day parades.

The situation of women in media in the communities, where the poorest of the poor reside, is a microcosm of the situation of women in the entire country, said De la Torre.

Dela Torre, dean of the Don Carlos Polytechnic College in Don Carlos town, southern Bukidnon, told the Project’s radio program aired over dxDB in February 2014 that more women are now working in radio programs in the provinces, but many have been made to host programs with themes that appear to be extensions only of their conventional roles in the household.

She said that most women with radio programs are not given responsibilities to address development issues – only topics like household management, cooking, taking care of children, beauty tips, and entertainment, among others. The practice only reinforces discrimination against women in the workplace, including in many radio stations.

Dela Torre shared her inputs as the radio program focused on the United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) declaration of February 13 as World Radio Day.

UNESCO called on countries “to celebrate radio as a medium; to improve international cooperation between broadcasters; and to encourage major networks and community radio alike to promote access to information, freedom of expression and gender equality over the airwaves.”

Irina Bokova, UNESCO director general, in a message for the occasion in February 2014, said radio still reaches more people than the Internet or television. “It is both a platform for global conversation and a forum to address local problems. It provides a voice to the voiceless, to the poor, to minorities, to women. It helps educate the illiterate and it saves lives during natural disasters,” she added.

Dela Torre stressed that the situation of women in radio is a reflection of their status in society as a whole, in which they have historically been limited to conventional roles as wives, mothers and homemakers. It is men, she added, who ruled radio in the past and who still do so at present. As a result men rule the public domain while women are limited to the private arena of the household. UNESCO’s call for equality in the airwaves is a recognition of women’s right to have as much of “a say” over radio as men.

The Philippines is among the countries in the world that have passed many laws to protect women, but that has not necessarily led to the empowerment of women as active participants in public discourse in the communities and in community media .

Rebecca Aquino, news anchor in Q106 Love Radio, however, noted that there are already women who have pursued careers in radio covering such current issues as terrorism and the peace process, among others. Aquino, who has worked with the Martial Law-era dxBB, the forerunner of the present day dxDB, said “there are also women who go all out in coverage (of these and other issues).”

“Women can do what men can do,” she said, adding that she will be among the resource persons in in the KBP’s Bukidnon Interaction, a weekly program of the Bukidnon Chapter of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP). Aquino argued that radio stations should provide women the same opportunities as men to enable them to reach those sectors of the population that have been left out of the democratic discourse over community issues. But one problem is that the managers of radio stations are not yet gender sensitive.

Fr. Oliver Verdejo, president of KBP-Bukidnon chapter, said the KBP program, which is simulcast over most stations in Bukidnon, while also address the role and status of women in broadcasting.

Delia Lapar, anchor of Reyna sa Panimalay (Queen of the Home) which airs daily on dxDB, said women’s voice on “homely” topics is also important.

“Health, child care, cooking …among other topics are also important development topics,” she added.

Lapar, a radio broadcaster since 1991, agreed that more women should be anchors, producers, and hosts of radio programs that tackle political and economic issues. But topics about the home can be entry points to the discussion of these issues.

She said it’s true she talks about what to cook for lunch and snacks, what herbal medicines can be used for certain ailments, among others. “But I also talk about development issues that directly concern the women and their families,” she added. She said her talk show covers gender and development issues, violence against women, livelihood, reproductive health, food safety and security, politics, business, and other issues.

Lapar said because of her work in a radio talk show, she has been invited to join fora and government monitoring of development issues such as access to potable water, Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome education campaign, among others.

Dela Torre admitted that the situation of women in radio has not been fully researched. There is a need to validate if indeed, the roles assigned to women in community radio are only extensions of their household roles. We need to know about the number of women in radio stations, the themes their programs and involvement cover, what are threats against women in broadcasting, among others.

Dela Torre pointed out that most educators are women, but that over radio women are treated as if they’re familiar only with household chores. “Women,” Dela Torre added, “should be given the opportunity to reach hitherto unreachable areas through radio, a potent force to educate the people beyond the four walls of the classroom.