KABUL (SW) – A new study titled ‘Gender Balance in Media’ has indicated only seven per cent of female media workers in the country are Pashto speakers.
The study compiled by the Killid Group is based on findings gathered from Kabul, Khost, Nangarhar, Balkh, Herat, Kandahar, Baghlan, Kunduz and Badakhshan provinces.
The study also revealed the numbers of female media practitioners have dropped from 2000 to 1700.
The study noted that 87 per cent of female workers in the media sector are Dari speakers, 7 per cent Pashto speakers, two per cent Uzbeki speakers and 4 per cent others. According to the study, 67 per cent of these female media workers are young girls, 32 per cent married women and only one per cent divorced women.
Mehmood Mubarez, a researcher at the Killid Group, told the moot in this connection that the female media workers are seen to be quitting their jobs sooner than their male counterparts. He said 48 per cent of females left their jobs in three years.
He noted social and cultural impediments are the main hurdles stopping Pashto speaking females to enter media industry.
According to the academic credentials of the female media workers, up to 67 per cent are believed to be graduate, 4 per cent holding masters’ degrees and close to 19 per cent high-school graduates.
An overwhelming majority of women and girls, 65 per cent, are believed to be working at middle-level, 21 per cent at lower levels and only 14 per cent at the management levels. 47 per cent of female workers said their salaries in the media industry were less than what their male counterparts were getting for the same work.
Up to 87 per cent of them said they have faced sexual harassment in the media industry.
ENDS
