Women activists in Uganda have blamed the media for frustrating the ambitions of women in politics and also contributing to their failure to win elections through discouraging coverage of women.
Solome Nakaweesi Kimbugwe
The former Coordinator of the Uganda Women’s Network, Solome Nakaweesi Kimbugwe has told Ultimate Media that during elections, women candidates for the various electoral posts never enjoy as much media coverage as their male counterparts. She says some media houses undertaken caricature based and discouraging coverage of women, which is many times detrimental to women’s chances of winning such elections.
She says for instance it was noted that this was the case in the 2006 general elections when the media gave more coverage to the male presidential candidates as compared to Miria Obote who was the only female candidate that participated in that presidential candidate.
Nakaweesi says that even when there is coverage it instead focuses on the weaknesses of for instance in 2006 when Obote lost her voice, the media capitalized on that which was unnecessary and worked to her disadvantage.
She says the media also focuses on minor personal and private attributes like beauty, marital status and life of the women candidates to undermine their leadership abilities which makes women fail to win elections.
Women activists recently met under a conference organized by Forum for Women in Democracy on the situation of women in political parties and demanded for more involvement of women at different decision making organs of political parties in Uganda