Media & gender on CSW agenda

Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work: The CSW theme for 2017

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), celebrating its 61st session at UN Headquarters in New York from 13-24 March, has selected gender and media as its review theme for its 62nd session in 2018. The 2018 review will examine the “participation in and access of women to the media, and information and communication technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women”.

Echoing the work and demands of many stakeholders, this will be the first time the CSW has highlighted the importance of media and ICTs for the gender equality and women's human rights agenda.

The contribution of IAMCR's Task Force for the Global Alliance on Media and Gender (GAMAG) has been key to bring to bear insights from research on the links between gender and media and women's human rights. GAMAG and UNESCO will host a public event on 15 March at UNESCO´s office in New York to debate the issues and reveal priorities for GAMAG's work leading up to the 2018 CSW. Titled Towards CSW 2018: Media, ICTs and Women’s Human Rights, the session will explore issues central to gender equality in and through media & ICTs, including:

  • To what extent have recommendations on “women and the media” contained in global agreements such as the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action been achieved?
  • What are the links between the gender dimensions in media & ICTs content and practice, and the human rights of women?