Review of the implementation of the Beijing platform for action in the EU member states : advancing gender equality in decision-making in media organisations : Malta

Abstract

The report explores the extent to which women occupy decision-making positions across a sample of media organisations in the 27 Member States and Croatia. It also aims to identify the extent to which these media organisations have developed gender equality policies, the mechanisms that are in place to monitor such policies and the kinds of specific initiatives which exist to further support the career development of women within the sector. Studies of women’s employment experiences suggest that organisations that have adopted positive action strategies such as mentoring, leadership programmes and the formalisation of monitoring mechanisms, including equality committees, are also more likely to recruit and promote women into senior level positions. In other words, there seems to be a positive link between policies developed within media organisations to promote gender equality, and the proportion of women in decision-making roles, providing a rationale for looking at both of these elements together. In addition, insights into what helps and what hinders women’s career prospects are important issues to explore. The report draws on some of the testimonies provided by senior women media practitioners who were interviewed for the study. The document presents the data collected and available for Malta compared with EU-27 in average