Females in media practice is very low-Survey

A study by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has found that female representation in Ghanaian media practice is very low.

Currently, only about 31.2% of participants in the Ghanaian media space are women.

This follows a survey of over 1,000 persons by the research team that wrote the report.

This low representation is due to factors such as cost of mobile devices and data plans as well as socio-economic and cultural barriers.

According to the report, the affordability of mobile devices and data plans is most daunting in regions where women may have limited financial resources.

The report also found that existing systemic issues including a lack of equal opportunities for women in media professions, contribute to the under representation of women’s voices.

Another issued highlighted in the CDD report is the limited access to education and training opportunities for women, which hinders their entry into the media and other professions.

This was attributed to the lack of females as owners and managers of the media space who could offer opportunities and representation to other women.

A gender breakdown of social media use among Ghanaian citizens showed that of the 5.65 million Facebook users, 60% were male, while 40% were female.

Some 65% of the 2.1 million LinkedIn users were male while 35% were female.

On Twitter, 79% of the 1.15 million users were male while 21% were female, while 58% of the 1.7 million users were male and 42% were female.