Women in the Newsroom in the Contemporary Media in Nigeria

In our society today, because the female mass communication students taking up journalism as their profession, people now see them or take them to be shy from going into journalism. In the real sense, they are nit been naturally shy, it is the class which they are been placed in the society that makes them shy away or pretend not to be interested in the career. In Nigeria where people are raised in culture highly dominated by role differentiations, the women are often reminded if their natural roles as wives and mothers and that these are the only places where they can fit in and perform. The effect therefore, is that women especially in Nigeria tend to shy away from other roles they can comfortably fit into.

The issue here is that the women who read journalism as their profession are not even given the opportunity to be employed and show that stuff they are made of. Supporting this Okogie (2008) said “we have qualified professionals disciplined and responsible women who can hold top positions in this country, they should be given the opportunity to serve”. Nigeria has a wealth of knowledgeable women and resources that are being ignored and wasted. Maduagwu (2008”35) also said that “empowerment will enhance the potentials of women in education, business, political and skills acquisition”. Pointing out that it will help the women combat gender differences and marginalization. In real life, it is believed that motherhood leaves the African women at the centre but not necessarily in power.

If the women can be given the opportunity to share out door work with the man to earn a living, they will forget everything about shyness and have the interest in practicing their journalism profession. Woman need to demonstrate their priceless abilities as mothers and managers of the home in such careers as journalism, and surely they would do better than our men  folks. Journalism is profession for both men and woman. Nigeria woman should see journalism as natural intelligence and sense of perfection which are natural endowments and from God himself to woman.

In the media houses, research has been shown that the numbers of female presenters are more than male while the number of male reporters are more than female reporters. This shows that even in the media houses the employers think that the best place for the woman is in the section where they can present programme. They believe that woman cannot devote enough time, not strong or intelligent to go into the filed together and report news. This makes woman not be seen in the field work like their male counter parts and because of these it then seems as if they shy away from their profession.