Key Projects and Organisations in Gender and Media

When you open a newspaper or scroll through news headlines, have you ever stopped to notice who is telling the stories? More importantly, whose stories are being told? These questions lie at the heart of a global movement that has been quietly reshaping how we think about media representation and gender equality.

Around the world, several organizations and research initiatives are working tirelessly to monitor, advocate for, and transform the way women are represented in media. These efforts range from large-scale global research projects to targeted training programs, all united by a common goal: creating a media landscape that reflects the full diversity of human experience rather than perpetuating outdated stereotypes and biases.

Tracking gender gaps through global monitoring
Building ethical journalism through education and training
Creating industry standards and self-regulation
Changing entertainment media from the inside
Building global networks for sustainable change
National efforts and Indian initiatives
Why this work matters

Tracking gender gaps through global monitoring

Imagine if you could capture a snapshot of how gender is portrayed in news media across the entire world on a single day. That is exactly what the Global Media Monitoring Project has been doing every five years since 1995. Coordinated by the World Association for Christian Communication, the GMMP represents the largest and longest-running research initiative examining gender representation in news media worldwide.

The project works through an army of volunteers, from grassroots activists to university researchers, who analyze news content across newspapers, television, radio, and digital platforms. The findings have been remarkably consistent and troubling. Women make up only about 24 to 26 percent of the people heard, read about, or seen in the news, a figure that has barely budged over three decades.

What makes these numbers particularly significant is their stability across different countries and media platforms. Whether you are reading a newspaper in Nairobi or watching television news in Tokyo, the pattern of women’s underrepresentation remains strikingly similar. The most recent monitoring in 2025 marked 30 years since the project began, and while there have been small improvements, the pace of change suggests it could take another 67 years to achieve gender parity in news media at the current rate.

The GMMP does more than just count numbers. It examines how women are portrayed when they do appear in news, which stories feature women, and whether reporting challenges or reinforces gender stereotypes. This comprehensive approach has made GMMP data an essential tool for advocacy groups, policymakers, and media organizations working toward gender equality.

Building ethical journalism through education and training

Recognizing that lasting change requires not just awareness but practical skills, several organizations have developed comprehensive training resources for journalists and media professionals. The Learning Resource Kit for Gender-Ethical Journalism and Media House Policy, created through collaboration between the World Association for Christian Communication and the International Federation of Journalists, stands out as a pioneering effort in this space.

Launched in 2011 and available in multiple languages including Arabic, English, French, and Spanish, this resource kit draws from insights of media practitioners, educators, and researchers from every continent. It is organized into two comprehensive books. The first tackles conceptual issues about gender in news reporting, while the second provides practical guidelines for covering specific topics like climate change, disaster reporting, economic news, health issues, violence against women, and political coverage.

What makes these training materials particularly valuable is their recognition that ethical journalism and quality journalism are inseparable. Fair representation of women is not just a matter of social justice but fundamental to journalistic integrity. The resources encourage dialogue within media structures and between media organizations and civil society groups, fostering a collaborative approach to change.

Creating industry standards and self-regulation

The International Federation of Journalists has taken these efforts further through its Ethical Journalism Initiative, which explicitly addresses gender bias as part of core journalistic ethics. By integrating gender-ethical reporting into broader discussions about combating sensationalism, fact-checking, and upholding professional standards, the IFJ helps media professionals understand that fair gender portrayal is not a separate issue but central to rebuilding public trust in news.

Changing entertainment media from the inside

While news media shapes our understanding of current events, entertainment media influences how we imagine possibilities for ourselves and others. This is where the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media has made its distinctive contribution. Founded in 2004 by Academy Award-winning actor Geena Davis, the institute operates on a simple but powerful philosophy: gathering and sharing data rather than blaming studios for lack of representation.

Davis founded the institute after noticing a stark gender imbalance in children’s television while watching shows with her toddler daughter. Her initial research revealed that only 11 percent of family films had female leads back in 2004. Rather than simply criticizing this disparity, she decided to create the most comprehensive body of research on gender representation in family entertainment.

The institute works collaboratively within the entertainment industry, providing research, consultation, and tools to content creators. One of their most innovative contributions is the development of Spellcheck for Bias, artificial intelligence software that analyzes screenplays for stereotypes and problematic choices related to gender, race, disability, and sexual orientation. Major studios including Disney and Universal have adopted this technology to examine representation in their productions.

The Geena Davis Institute has expanded its focus beyond gender to include representation of people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people with disabilities, older characters, and diverse body types. Their annual research reports track progress across all these dimensions, holding the entertainment industry accountable while also celebrating improvements. The institute’s work is grounded in the belief that what children see on screen shapes their sense of what is possible. If girls consistently see male characters outnumbering female characters, they absorb the message that boys matter more.

Building global networks for sustainable change

Individual projects and organizations, no matter how effective, can only achieve so much working in isolation. This recognition led to the creation of the Global Alliance on Media and Gender, a UNESCO-initiated network that brings together more than 700 media houses, training institutions, journalism unions, and gender activists from around the world.

Launched at the first Global Forum on Gender and Media in Bangkok in 2013, GAMAG held its first general assembly in Geneva in 2015, where it called for achieving gender equality in and through media by 2030 in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. The alliance operates as an independent network while working closely with UNESCO, UN Women, and other international bodies.

GAMAG focuses on three critical areas: violence against women journalists, gender mainstreaming in media and ICT policy, and ending violence against women in media content. These priorities reflect the understanding that gender inequality in media operates at multiple levels, from who gets to tell stories and under what conditions, to how stories are told and whose perspectives are included.

The alliance leverages research findings, particularly from the Global Media Monitoring Project, to push for concrete policy changes at national and international levels. Member organizations have successfully used GAMAG frameworks to advocate for legislation in countries like Argentina, where a national law now mandates gender parity in public media from a sexual diversity perspective.

National efforts and Indian initiatives

While global networks provide crucial coordination and knowledge sharing, meaningful change often requires national and local action tailored to specific contexts. In India, various committees and commissions have examined the status of women, including their representation and treatment in media, though media-specific monitoring and advocacy remain areas requiring sustained attention.

The broader women’s movement in India has consistently raised concerns about media portrayal, from the objectification of women in advertising to the coverage of violence against women in news media. Civil society organizations, journalist networks, and academic institutions work to monitor media content, provide training, and advocate for better practices. The growth of media literacy initiatives also empowers audiences to critically evaluate the media they consume and demand better representation.

Why this work matters

You might wonder whether the representation of women in media really matters when there are so many pressing issues facing women worldwide, from violence to economic inequality to lack of access to education and healthcare. The answer lies in understanding media not as separate from these issues but as deeply intertwined with all of them.

Media shapes how we understand social problems, who we see as experts and leaders, which voices we trust, and what solutions seem possible or realistic. When media consistently shows women as victims rather than decision-makers, as background characters rather than protagonists of their own stories, or as defined by their relationships to men rather than as complete individuals, it reinforces the very attitudes and structures that create inequality in other spheres.

The projects and organizations working on gender and media recognize this fundamental truth. They understand that changing representation requires sustained effort at multiple levels: rigorous research to document problems, practical training to build skills, collaborative engagement with media industries, advocacy to change policies and practices, and global networks to share knowledge and coordinate action.

Progress has been slow and uneven, but there have been victories. Gender parity in leading roles has been achieved in some areas of family entertainment. More journalists are being trained in gender-ethical reporting. Major media companies are adopting tools to measure and improve representation. Global networks are growing stronger and more coordinated in their advocacy.

What do you think? When you consume news or entertainment media, do you notice patterns in whose stories are told and how different groups are portrayed? What role can media audiences play in pushing for better representation, and how might changes in media representation influence broader social attitudes toward gender equality?

References

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Table of Contents

Tracking gender gaps through global monitoring 🔗

Building ethical journalism through education and training 🔗

Creating industry standards and self-regulation 🔗

Changing entertainment media from the inside 🔗

Building global networks for sustainable change 🔗

National efforts and Indian initiatives 🔗

Why this work matters 🔗