Tag Archive for: Equal Opportunities

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We invite you to the National Forum of Gender Policies in Journalism and Advertising

The event will be held on September 12 and 13, 2019 in classroom 300 of the Faculty of Social Sciences (Constitution Headquarters) of the University of Buenos Aires.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

Transform work structures to transform content

After years of research on the advertising and journalism industries, from Fundeps, the Civil Association for Equality Communication and with the support of the Heinrich Boll Foundation, we consider it relevant to share the results obtained among the actors involved.

Our research shows that gender inequality within media companies, advertising agencies and related unions translates, among other issues, into the co-optation of symbolically and economically more relevant positions and positions held by men. In turn, vocational training institutions have a limited academic offer in gender issues.

This acquires particular relevance due to the key role of these industries in the formation of opinion and cultural mandates.

At this point, it becomes necessary to observe and discuss labor practices and behaviors within these spaces, understanding them as organizational structures. The aim is to promote the construction of inclusive, democratic workspaces, where diverse gender identities participate in the production of sexism-free content and in decision-making positions.

The objective of the event is to generate a sensitization and capacity building, meeting and articulation instance, but also to discuss gender policies in both industries, calling on media companies, advertising agencies, educational institutions, unions and business associations , to workers in the sector, civil society organizations and the State.

The Forum is aimed at these mentioned sectors and those who seek to transform communication and related work spaces from a gender perspective.

Agenda and panels

Participants from the sector of Córdoba and Buenos Aires and more than 20 communicators, publicists and journalists from the country will participate, with the purpose of incorporating a federal perspective on gender policies in journalism and advertising and in order to generate lines of action and impact throughout the country.

On September 12, the Forum will be opened by the institutions that organize it and in which Luciana Peker will make a keynote talk: “The feminist tide in advertising and journalism”.

On Friday 13, between 9 and 18 hours, panels-workshops will be held in which some of the critical axes identified in both industries will be addressed: Care policies; Labor Rights and Unionization; Journalism and Gender; Advertising and gender.

Participation in the Forum is free but admission must complete this registration form.

More information to info@fundeps.org

Circular I National Forum on Gender Policies in Journalism and Advertising

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Let’s be empowered! Let’s make breastfeeding possible

Throughout the world, from August 1 to 7, dissemination, promotion and support activities for breastfeeding are carried out. What is the role and commitment of the actors involved?

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

In August 1990, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, several States and civil society organizations signed the Innocenti Declaration with the objective of protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding.

This year’s motto is: “Let’s empower ourselves. Let’s make breastfeeding possible!” And was launched by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding (WABA). This slogan attempts to challenge states, unions, employers and civil society organizations to develop solutions that lead to gender equality and improve breastfeeding rates.

The World Health Organization emphasizes the need for paid maternity leave of at least eighteen weeks and paid paternity leave in order to achieve equality in the care of daughters and sons. It also expresses that breastfeeding policies should be promoted in work environments (breastfeeding breaks, safe, private and hygienic spaces and childcare services).

Along the same lines, we argue that breastfeeding promotion and support cannot be achievable without thinking about public policies in the face of the care crisis. The sexual division of labor remains rigid and mainly affects women. Against this, actions that understand care as public responsibilities are necessary.

Thus, public education, child care services, older adults and any person who requires special care from another and equal maternity and paternity leave must be part of public agendas. Also, the private sector is not out of these actions. Private companies are responsible for complying with labor regulations and collective bargaining agreements that promote and ensure equal and inclusive care and breastfeeding policies without gender stereotypes (ensuring the presence of lactaries in the workplace or respecting licenses).

The body of women, historically, has been a field of regulations. Here they play speeches disputing hegemonic knowledge. We understand that it is the responsibility of the States to promote public policies that allow social scenarios where women and people who care for girls and boys freely decide on breastfeeding, with useful and clear information, without stereotypes and patriarchal cultural mandates.

Author

Ivana Sanchez

Contact

Cecilia Bustos Moreschi, cecilia.bustos.moreschi@fundeps.org

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We present the report on gender and advertising in Rosario

Last Thursday, June 27, we presented our report on gender and publicity at the Open University of Rosario, invited by members of the governing body and teacher of the advertising career.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

After years of research in communication and gender issues together with Comunicación para la Igualdad, we have arrived at results that highlight the unequal terrain faced by women and dissidents in the advertising field. For this reason, we understand the importance of disseminating this information in order to generate a positive impact in terms of gender equality within the advertising industry.

That is how on Thursday, June 27, the Open University of Rosario (UAI) opened its doors for the presentation of the report “Advertising sector and gender.” The invitation came from the Director of the Advertising Career, María Virginia Beduino and one of its most committed teachers on the subject, Mariángeles Camusso who, in addition, coordinates the Advertising Observatory on Sexism of the University.

Throughout the more than two hours of the presentation, conclusions were presented that enabled the debate and intervention of the participants. Together with the institution, the proposal was to generate a space for meeting and reflection on the future scope of student employment, to discuss the current trajectories of educational spaces, as well as to learn about the experiences of those who are already working.

During the dialogue different points of view and experiences of those who make up the advertising industry and its related sectors were shared: students, workers, teachers, representatives of advertising agencies and academia.

In the presentation, emphasis was placed on the need to know and address machismo and gender inequality within the advertising industry, since research on this subject is scarce, especially with an eye toward the interior of the country.

In these spaces, where invisibility prevails and, therefore, the reproduction of gender violence and stereotypes, sexism and gender gaps in the access of women to hierarchical positions and masculinized areas were known.

We identify that women are the majority (58%) among those who graduate from advertising careers. Then, when entering the advertising agencies, we noticed that among the people who work there there is a relative parity: 49.5% of female presence and 50.5% of males.

However, inequality is perceived in vertical and horizontal segregation, since men occupy the majority of the positions of hierarchy and the highest-paid and symbolically most relevant areas. Men constitute 83.5% of the property and managerial positions in advertising agencies, 68% of business chambers and 92% of those who direct creative areas. Even in areas such as Accounts where the female presence is 67%, in most cases it is directed by men (72.5%).

The area with the greatest female presence, both among its workers and in its directorates, is Administration or Finance, more orderly in terms of hours, although less valued in terms of salaries and possibilities of promotion.

In the educational field, there are no compulsory subjects on gender and in the agencies only 15% have carried out training on the subject.

Faced with these conclusions, we emphasize the importance of generating spaces for debate in educational institutions linked to the training of advertising professionals, since they allow us to raise concerns, denaturalize inequality and think about actions for the transformation of these spaces. The institutional openness of the UAI and the commitment of its teachers to address inequalities and gender violence in the advertising industry is a notable step towards its prevention and eradication from the zero point. We invite all the actors involved in the advertising industry to advance towards the eradication of gender-based violence.

Authors

Mila Francovich

Cecilia Bustos Moreschi

Contact

Cecilia Bustos Moreschi, cecilia.bustos.moreschi@fundeps.org

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We participated in the consultation of UN Women for Beijing + 25

In view of the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform, UN Women is pushing at the international level for States to review the progress and challenges surrounding women’s human rights. For this, a meeting was called with civil society organizations, together with the National Institute of Women (INAM).

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

The Beijing Declaration and Platform is a program developed in 1995 with a large participation of civil society, to give tools to States, the private sector and the third sector, to promote gender equality. Every five years, a revision process is carried out, at a general level and at the level of the States, to finally make recommendations that allow to continue advancing in the fulfillment of the measures established in said platform.

The national reviews contribute to the global review and evaluation that UN Women will prepare and present during the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CWS 64), which will take place in March 2020 in New York . The reports are composed not only of the information provided by the State, but also by the contributions of civil society. In this context, INAM, the agency in charge of coordinating gender policies in Argentina, openly called social organizations, the women’s movement and trade unions.

Considering that the Beijing Platform has been a key document for international policy, it has been revised in the light of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. In this sense, four axes were identified in which Beijing + 25 and the 2030 Agenda:

  • Inclusive development, shared prosperity and decent work
  • Eradication of poverty, social protection and social services
  • Eradication of violence, stigmas and stereotypes
  • Participation, responsibility and institutions with a gender perspective

Regarding inclusive development, the challenge we face has to do with the difficulties faced by women and diversities in their access to work and, within it, the limits to their possibilities of promotion. This is linked to the lack of equal opportunity policies at the level of public policies and within these companies, according to research carried out in media companies and advertising agencies. Specifically, the critical axis is maternity and care, due to the lack of conciliation policies regarding parental leave, extension of leave time, leave for care (due to illness, family disability, care for the elderly), flexible forms of work (home office) or problems around day care centers. In the event that these types of actions are implemented, they respond to particular demands, so they are not institutionalized or systematized.

Regarding the eradication of violence, stigmas and stereotypes, we are particularly concerned that the public bodies set up to watch over situations of media and symbolic violence – applying Law 26.485 and 26.522 – present irregularities, even when there are commitments assumed by the government and resources from international cooperation to strengthen the fight against gender violence. This is especially noticeable in the ways open to society, for example, the mouths of denunciation.

In our experience, the Media Observatory of INAM and ENACOM have little or no response level to complaints, while the Ombudsman’s Office, with greater activity in this regard, continues to accept it since 2015.

As we understand that the eradication of gender violence implies its visibility and the transformation of naturalized sociocultural patterns and reproduced in daily practices, we make recommendations for the inclusion of awareness, training and gender perspective training in the media and advertising agencies , starting from the areas of university or tertiary professional training.

Finally, on the point of institutions with a gender perspective, we consider that the enactment of the Micaela Law is a good way to incorporate it into State bodies. However, we must insist on adherence by the provinces and state institutions.

Likewise, we recognize public and private schools as institutions endorsed by the State to provide formal education. As such, they must abide by the legislation on the implementation of the ESI and be responsible – and therefore susceptible to being sanctioned – in cases where actions are taken that impede the right to receive or provide sex education.

Within the consultation, topics related to the importance of including the rights of sexual diversity, in particular of transgender people, labor inclusion, vocational training and representation and political participation were also mentioned in all the axes. In order to celebrate the 25th anniversary of what happened in Beijing, the anniversary finds the feminist movement in the midst of the struggle to continue expanding the rights of women, transgender people and dissent.

More information

Country review processes for Beijing + 25:

Beijing + 25 background

Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action

Author

Carolina Tamagnini

Contact

María Cecilia Bustos Moreschi, cecilia.bustos.moreschi@fundeps.org

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The gender wage gap and the struggle for equal pay

Although women are half of the world’s adult population, men continue to occupy leadership positions, hierarchical positions and better paid jobs. The salary difference in your favor is one of the most difficult injustices to make visible and change.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

In Argentina, according to the indices provided by the INDEC and the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security of the Nation, the gender wage gap in 2018 was 27.5%. Therefore, the women had to work one year and three months to get the same as them in just one year. And that gap is even greater if we talk about unregistered workers, since in those cases the difference reaches 36% less compared to the salaries of informal workers.

No work environment is excluded from the aforementioned statistics. This is demonstrated by the reports on the Media and Advertising Agencies carried out by the Fundeps Gender team, in which it was possible to establish what were some of the causes that generated this gap.

According to the data collected in our research on gender and media, only the Clarín Group recognized a 20% wage gap between men and women, while the other companies, both public and private, said that for the same task is paid equal remuneration. Although this was not manifested by almost half of the workers, they did observe discretionary situations in the allocation of salaries. The most common cases we could see were: “radio operators who charge more than their female colleagues on private radios; men who occupy the best rankings in public media, or promotions that do not respect professional careers but are based on gender identities” (see full report).

Regarding the advertising agencies, we observed that women received 21% lower salaries in the hierarchical positions and that in relation to the positions of male employees the total gap amounted to 46% (see full report). This gap it deepens and aggravates more if we take into account that the advertising industry has a female participation parity.

When we ask ourselves why there is a gender wage gap, we understand that they are a bunch of factors that cause it to reproduce and affect us. Within the scope of the media and advertising agencies, several of these factors were identified: the forms of hiring that imply a precarious employment especially for women; the glass ceiling that prevents them from accessing positions of higher rank and salary; That same lack of women in leadership positions that demotivates others to try to aspire to them and the allocation of issues that are not remunerated by media companies.

The sexual division of labor that assigns to women the tasks of care and the home, is one of the biggest sources of wage gap between men and women. Since they spend the most time on reproductive work (invisible and unpaid), they have less time to study, train and work outside the home. This poverty of time makes it difficult for them to access full-time contracts, extended working hours (overtime), which are what often mark the salary difference, in many cases they must accept more flexible jobs (usually precarious and worse payments) and, usually, they end up facing a double working day: they work inside and outside the house.

These causes are transversal and can be observed in other work areas. It is for all this that, in reference to the day of equal pay, we demand economic policies with a gender perspective, which help to close the wage gap and that fight in this way the historical injustice suffered by working women.

Author

Valentina Montero

Contact

Cecilia Bustos Moreschi, cecilia.bustos.moreschi@fundeps.org

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The advertising sector from a gender perspective

Together with Comunicar Igualdad, we present the results of an investigation carried out in 2018 on the advertising sector, from educational institutions, trade unions, professional associations and advertising agencies in Córdoba and Buenos Aires.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

This publication is part of a research process of more than three years, carried out by the Civil Association Communication for Equality and the Foundation for the Development of Sustainable Policies – FUNDEPS – which addresses the problem of inequality in the field of communication, from access to participation, information and justice of citizens in public policies (2012/2016 and 2018), to access to equality in access to opportunities in the organizational structures of the media world, and in this case, the sector of the advertising industry.

The media and the advertising industry, as essential actors in the preparation of content, are spaces that hold great power, not only commercial or as cultural institutions, but are established as opinion makers, producers, reproducers and transmitters of values, stereotypes, meanings and common sense, while defining what is considered relevant, normal, debatable and socially accepted or rejected. It is fundamental to understand in this sense the global concern about the problem of inequality in access to opportunities for women and people in the LGTTTBIQ + community.

Already in 1995, the Platform for Action (PAB) of the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, established as a strategic objective, within its section J, the need to “Increase access for women and their participation in expressing their ideas and making decisions in the media and through them, as well as in new communication technologies.” Among others, this is a commitment that States and civil society assumed in order to advance the process towards real equality between genders.

Closer in time, at the 62nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which in March 2018, the following topic was considered: The participation of women in the media and Information and communication technologies, and women’s access to them, as well as their impact on the advancement and empowerment of women and their use for these purposes.

In the same way, and as it will be analyzed throughout the present, the Yogyakarta Principles, which since 2007 have addressed the application of international human rights legislation in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, in section 19, recommends that States ensure that both the production and the organization of media regulated by the State are pluralistic and non-discriminatory with regard to matters related to sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as in the hiring of personal and promotional policies, such organizations do not discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.

In this framework, we present this report, we conducted an investigation throughout 2018, with the main objective of knowing the labor structure and gender policies of advertising agencies, professional associations, unions and educational institutions linked to the advertising sector of Argentina. The results show the representation of gender in their areas of operation, in the preparation of content and in decision-making positions. The approach is a necessary complement in order to understand the complete reality that covers the problem of communication, from a gender perspective

To carry out the report, interviews were held in the city of Buenos Aires and Córdoba, with: persons in charge of human resources or similar areas of advertising agencies; directives from universities that include careers related to the advertising sector; and unions and workers from that environment. In addition, data was collected and data was collected from official information sources.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the conclusions obtained in the investigation, and the democratization suggestions of the organizations made by the publicity workers and members of unions interviewed, the following recommendations have been made.

GENERAL

  • All the actors involved, and in collective strategies, must implement measures to mainstream the gender perspective. This will allow:
    • Denature the stereotyped messages that promote discrimination and violence.
    • Respect the principle of self-determination of sexual identities and orientations to promote images, characterizations and discourses that make visible and respectful of the diversity of gender identities, sexual orientations, as well as the diversity of bodies, needs and lifestyles.
  • It is important to rethink in all areas of the advertising industry the promotion of work with audiences.

FOR ADVERTISING AGENCIES

  • Promote a diverse and equal participation in terms of gender within the advertising agencies, especially in decision-making spaces.
  • Design strategies for the reduction of horizontal [1] and vertical segregation [2] that eliminate prejudices and gender discrimination and achieve real access to opportunities for all people equally in all instances of professional development.
  • Implement positive, real and concrete actions for the inclusion of LGTTBIQ + people in the industry.
  • Fully comply with labor laws regarding the payment of overtime and child care service, both rights granted by law that substantially affect the distribution by gender in different areas of the industry.
  • Conduct trainings on gender issues, regarding the preparation of the contents of the advertising pieces, as well as the necessary democratization of the agencies from this perspective.
  • Create offices for the monitoring and diagnosis of issues related to gender issues and the design of internal policies, as well as to address problems related to workplace harassment and gender violence.
  • Adopt a proactive thematic agenda on human rights and gender in the contents of the advertising pieces.

FOR PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND TRADE UNIONS

  • To reinforce the real representation of the sector of workers of the advertising industry, that responds to their needs in a democratic way and with real reach and in the whole country.
  • Include the gender perspective as a central element in the construction of the measures to be adopted, both in the claim for the real fulfillment of the rights of the workers, and in the conquest and advancement of those that are not recognized.
  • Encourage, on the part of professional associations, the gender perspective among those who work in the industry and, above all, between advertisers.
  • Develop gender policies within professional associations, to promote this approach with a view to the democratization of the industry.
  • Promote the gender perspective in instances of prizes and publicity contests.

FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

  • Design strategies to democratize managerial structures such as the teaching staff of schools and universities linked to advertising, with a focus on the need for greater insertion of female teachers and transgender people.
  • Include the gender dimension as a compulsory subject of the curricular construction of the careers corresponding to the advertising sector.
  • Create spaces to denounce and address situations of gender violence and harassment and specific areas for the design of gender education policies.
  • Establish agreements with advertising agencies for the promotion of women and trans students in them.

FOR THE STATE

  • Generate awareness campaigns for the whole society and consult specialized sources. For this it will be necessary to work together with different actors: educational institutions, civil society organizations, social movements, government areas, specialists, media and advertising companies.
  • Expand the protective spectrum of public communication and gender policies, with specific attention to the dimension of advertising.
  • Implement affirmative actions to promote the labor integration of women and LGTTBIQ + people in the advertising and institutional communication agencies of the public system: quotas, internship programs, training for inclusion, among others.
  • Design measures that import affirmative actions to promote the labor integration of women and LGTTBIQ + people in private advertising agencies: tax incentives and granting economic support to those who have specific policies for the promotion of gender equality.
  • Generate strategies to promote small advertising ventures aimed at women and trans collectives.
  • Expand the regulations related to paternity leave and licenses for care of people, regardless of their gender identity.
  • Promote a culture of democratization of organizations, through campaigns, sensitization, training and specific programs for the advertising industry, as well as the communication sector in general.

FOR CIVIL SOCIETY

  • Generate more spaces that represent the advertising sector within civil society organizations, which can address the challenges of the problem and can achieve greater advocacy capacity for the purpose of democratizing the industry.
  • Monitor constantly the actions of the agencies, unions, the State and universities, in order to give an account of the reality of the advertising sector and promote concrete measures for its approach.

Access to equal opportunities is one of the great debts of our society, and therefore it is necessary to continue breaking with the structures of power that invisibilize and exclude. It is of fundamental importance to continue walking towards an egalitarian democracy that recognizes in an inclusive way the rights of all citizens. The advertising sector is an important social actor. If the contents that are generated, and their functioning mechanisms are democratized towards real inclusion, a huge barrier will have been broken to achieve real equality for the whole society.

[1] Preeminence of males in the areas of Creativity, Technology and Production among others; and women in Administration, Accounts and Planning.

[2] Preeminence of males in management positions in most areas and, above all, in the General Directorates, Coordination and among CEOs.

Publication

More information

Contact

Virginia Pedraza – vir.pedraza@fundeps.org

Cecilia Bustos Moreschi – cecilia.bustos.moreschi@fundeps.org

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[SUMMARY] Advertising sector and gender: advertising agencies, associations, unions and educational institutions analyzed with a feminist perspective

Together with Comunicar Igualdad, we present the results of an investigation carried out in 2018 on the advertising sector, from educational institutions, trade unions, professional associations and advertising agencies in Córdoba and Buenos Aires.

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