A Study of the Roles of Professional Media Women and the Challenges they Face in Media Outlets in Kampala, Uganda

Abstract

Approach: Descriptive Survey. The study identified and described the roles of professional media women and the challenges they faced in Uganda's Kampala based media outlets. A self-administered questionnaire and interviews were used to gather data. The questionnaire was sent to 85 professional media women of which 60 (70.58%) were completed and 57 (67.05%) met the requirements of the study. The interviews were done by the researcher with 18 (69.23%) out of 26 senior media men, and 15 (60%) out of 25 senior media women, respectively. The findings indicate that the majority were reporters and others were produc- ers, editors, or programme organizers. The findings further show that the media women faced a number of challenges. The two most outstanding were: 1) in- equalities in job assigning, promotion and training and, 2) being stigmatized, marginalized and despised by their male counterparts. The researcher hopes that this study has contributed to the available knowledge about media women in Uganda and in the world at large, and will help to address issues of concern to media women.