'Equality will happen when we stop counting number of women leaders in any profession'

Women have been a part of radio’s journey from its earliest days. As engineers, producers, presenters, and leaders, they have played a key role in laying out the pathways of transmission and contributing to the broadcasting industry globally.

At The Radio Festival 2024, Moderator Smita Sharma (Independent Multimedia Journalist), along with Dr Annurag Batra (Chairman & Editor in Chief - BW Businessworld Media Group & Founder- exchange4Media Group), Nisha Narayanan (Director & COO, RED FM & Magic FM), Gunjan Priya (AIR) and Olya Booyar (Head of Radio - Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union or ABU) discussed how female representation has been in the leadership roles of radio industry.

On how much of leadership lies with women in broadcasting and radio, Batra kickstarted the discussion and said, “You can look at the glass half full or half empty. Leadership is gender neutral and we shouldn't look at any leadership role from the look of a gender lens.”

Today out of the top 10 radio stations, three are led by women and that can be called a fairly progressive state of gender equality on radios in India, he stated. 

Narayanan agreed with Batra but having said that, she believes if there are two equally talented male and female candidate for the same designation, her inclination will be towards a woman because their talent, their capabilities are so overlooked by society in general. Women go out of their way to prove they are better than everyone else because of the constant pressure on them.

Priya has had experiences where women's leadership is more aggressively concerned with issues regarding women. When they get a chance to show their position or power for the upliftment or support of their gender, they go all in and focus on minute details. 

Speaking from a global perspective, ABU spokesperson Booyar had a different opinion. Across the vast Asia-Pacific region, there is an absence of women in the industry, she pointed out. They are easy to spot because they are so few in number and easy to remember. She added, “There needs to be gender policies at government and organisational level because when we stop counting or pointing out top five leaders who’re women in a specific profession, that is when the equality will occur. Particularly when it comes to public service professions, there are very few women there.”

It's not just about the three-four top radio jockeys, but there are a majority of women who have to give up their careers during their pregnancy or to raise their kids. Once they disappear from the workforce due to these reasons, they tend to not re-enter because they have joined at a lower designation and have to establish their career again. So how do we get through that? 

“At the end of the day, it is a conscious decision to keep organisational policies in their favour. As soon as they go for maternity leave we hold that position and take up people only for that period that she is on a break. At Red FM a lot of departments like sales, and marketing are led by women. But this nowhere means that we have reached our best in terms of gender equality and need to empower women with more leadership positions,” added Narayanan. 

Priya who works for AIR said in the government space the improvement in gender equality happening too but it's a gradual process. Things are better than before.

But does it help to get the real people talking on a medium like radio when it comes to gender equality?

Booyar said, “You should see yourself and hear yourself to be able to realise yourself. If someone doesn't look like you, sees things like you, how are you going to believe the cause? There are so many panels and debates on gender equality which are honestly man-els fighting for the cause. For so many years, Prasar Bharati had only one woman and she too left.

Since Red FM has a very tongue in cheek tagline ‘Bajatey Raho’ their majority audience is male-dominated but they have a lot of women-specific shows and campaigns. Maybe other radio stations, based on their branding, get more female audiences. So advertisers or listeners are just not gender specific. 

“Most advertisers in India are more youth-centric rather than gender specific. Having said that, until and unless we dont have advertiser or listener support, it gets tough to raise concerns for a specific matter,” she added. 

Dr Batra concluded by saying, “People say the demise of radio has arrived but I believe today radio is becoming digital audio broadcasting and even podcasts, there are community radios too. So definitely radios can target a particular fanatic cult and further get advertisers who target that segment too.”