How gendered discrimination limits women's professional practice in conflict reporting in Latin America

Abstract

Author: Annika Stricker, BA Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Alice Němcová Tejkalová, Ph.D. Master Thesis: How Gendered Discrimination limits Women's Professional Practice in Conflict Reporting in Latin America English Abstract As war journalism is widely regarded as a men's domain, gendered discrimination limits women's professional practice in conflict reporting in Latin America. A continent, which is not only the deadliest region for journalists worldwide but also overly sexist due to patriarchal structures deeply rooted within Latin American cultures called "machismo". Based on a feminist theoretical framework and a phenomenological approach, female journalists' experiences and coping mechanisms with gendered discrimination were examined by conducting semi-structured interviews with ten Latin American journalists. The study shows, that female journalists in Latin America are sexualized, valued for their looks instead of their journalistic skills and often denied to cover certain beats and topics. This censors and silences female journalists as they are changing the way they practice journalism by not taking on risky tasks, moving to another country or stop exercising journalism altogether. However, female journalists in Latin America also developed progressive coping mechanisms such as taking safety measures and...