There are multiple angles here:
INCREASE YOUR WOMEN BYLINES
Make sure that you have women writing and creating your content, alongside men. Often this means that there is an automatic gender lens.
ON STORIES THAT MATTER
If your women reporters are only reporting on lifestyle, travel or celebrity stories, this is not gender balanced. Make sure that women are given bylines on substantive stories like politics, sports, business etc.
INCLUDE WOMEN SOURCES
Use women sources to ensure that their perspectives are included. Do not fall into the trap of quoting men politicians, but women teachers or homemakers. Avoid using women only for sharing personal experiences.
INCLUDE EXPERT WOMEN SOURCES
Make sure that you have a balance of women and men experts to bring a diversity of expert opinion. There are successful and knowledgeable women in all professions – there is no excuse for excluding women expert opinion.
BUILD A WOMEN EXPERT SOURCEBOOK
Create and curate a women expert sourcebook (if there isn’t already one in your country or issue area). This should be a dynamic and evolving database – you should be using the database and seeking out new women expert sources on a daily basis. Media organisations such as the BBC and Bloomberg are doing this with great success. For an example of a omprehensive women sourcebook see SheSource (US/Global). In Zimbabwe, Gender Media Connect has created a similar women sourcebook called According to Her.
TRAIN WOMEN EXPERTS IN MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS
To increase the quality of content from women experts, some media corporations (including Bloomberg) are providing them (those who have no experience of appearing in the media) with media and communication skills training. This is particularly important for broadcast and audio-visual media.
