Has the local journalism scene become an obstacle to women's empowerment in Kuwait?
Nowadays, women's empowerment has become one of the most essential topics globally. Day in and day out, international media celebrates women, highlights their achievements,and shares their success stories.
Meanwhile, our local-media in Kuwait supports women’s rights only when it’s profitable.
As a Kuwaiti community that supports women and believes in the crucial role women hold in society, we are always trying to shed light on Kuwaiti women’s achievements through organizing events and interviews that highlight their success stories and showcase them to our audiences.
This year, in order to gain more support and promote women’s empowerment in Kuwait, we invited our local media platforms to cover our events. However, after extending multiple invitations, all we got back from our press was radio silence!
Journalism against women's empowerment
Kuwaiti media relies heavily on advertising. That is, the local media will not display any interest in your content unless you collaborate (i.e. advertise) with them. Essentially,this means that organizations must pay to gain the media’s attention. This explains why the local media has been ignoring our content, and what adds salt to the wound is their insistence on being nonprofit organizations!
Such a policy reveals our local media's clear intention to marginalize Kuwaiti women. Accordingly,the lack of women's representation limits women’s opportunities to tell their stories and share their successes and raises questions about why they are not made more visible in the media.
The media's biases against women extends beyond marginalization. Female athletes mentioned that mainstream media has made fun of them, mocking their attempts to start a professional career in sports. Similarly, entrepreneurs have affirmed that the local media is pitting women against each other in the financial and business world.
Weak argument
In an attempt to defend themselves, journalists working in the local media scene insist on their innocence, attributing their discard of women's issues to the policies followed by the owners.
It is important to note that our efforts to support Kuwaiti women and our events to empower them are disrespected and considered by our media platforms as social gatherings and classified in the social section.
Our local media should understand that it is time for more Kuwaiti women to be part of the media landscape as this will change the country's outlook abroad and promote gender equality.
Bottom line
So, the question remains: why do Kuwaiti media organizations try to ignore the role of women in society and belittle their achievements despite their important successes across several fields? Do our media platforms support only those who pay the most — and if so, who is really paying the price?
