In Ghana, most citizens rely on the radio, and most turn to television for news. These media platforms wield immense power in shaping public discourse.
Yet, a new report from the Ghana Women Expert Project reveals an unfortunate reality: women remain significantly underrepresented in Ghana’s media, both as experts and presenters, perpetuating a gender gap that stifles diverse perspectives.
Their 2024 report, the third in a series launched in 2021, monitored six major media outlets in Ghana from February to June, analyzing 1,749 interviews across radio and television programs.
The Findings
The findings paint a stark picture: only 15% of interviewees were women, meaning that for every 17 male voices heard, just three were female.
This disparity was most pronounced at TV3, one of the country’s popular TV stations, where women accounted for a mere 3% of interviewees, translating to a ratio of 32 men for every woman.
The report, led by Newton Norviewu of the Ghana Women Expert Project, defines an “expert” as anyone interviewed for their knowledge or authority, including politicians, professionals like nurses and teachers, and public relations officers.
Of the 1,621 expert interviews conducted, only 14% featured women—a marginal improvement from 9% in 2021 and 12% in 2023.
At TV3, the representation of female experts was a dismal 3%, while Peace FM’s Kokrooko program fared slightly better at 8%.
Ghana Television (GTV), a public broadcaster included in the study for the first time in 2024, offered a brighter spot, with 30% of its expert interviewees being women.
Continued Low Number of Female Representation
The underrepresentation extends beyond interviewees. Among the 577 presenters observed, only 24% were women. GTV stood out as an exception, with women comprising 60% of presenters on its Breakfast Show, the only instance where female presenters outnumbered men.
Other outlets, including Joy FM, Citi FM, and Starr FM, showed significant imbalances, with women making up a fraction of on-air talent.
The report also examined correspondents, finding similar trends. GTV was the only outlet with equal representation of male and female correspondents, though its small pool of four correspondents may skew the data.
In contrast, stations like Starr FM, Citi FM, and Joy FM, with larger correspondent teams, showed women to be significantly underrepresented.
Time allocation further highlights the inequity. Male interviewees received a total of 8,902 minutes (roughly 148 hours) of airtime, compared to just 1,441 minutes (24 hours) for women.
However, some outlets showed efforts toward fairness.
At Citi FM, female experts were given slightly more time per interview—4.2 minutes on average compared to 3.8 minutes for men.
Joy FM’s Super Morning Show also showed relative equity, with women receiving 1.7 minutes per interview compared to 2 minutes for men.
Still, the overall picture remains one of inequality, with women consistently allocated less airtime.
The report notes incremental progress over the years. At Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, female expert representation rose from 8% in 2021 to 15% in 2024, improving the male-to-female expert ratio from 12:1 to 6:1.
Citi FM saw a peak of 13% in 2023, though it dipped back to 10% in 2024.
Conversely, TV3’s Key Point program saw a decline from 9% in 2021 to 3% in 2024, worsening the ratio from 10:1 to 32:1.
The Ghana Women Expert Project calls for deliberate efforts to close the gap, including training programs for female journalists and policies to ensure equitable representation.
The full report is available through the Ghana Women Expert Project.
This article was edited with AI and reviewed by human editors
