Gender mainstreaming, Poland 2007

The report on gender mainstreaming in Poland argues that: 1. Gender mainstreaming is absent from the Polish media world: - research covering the whole sector is lacking - there are just several case studies; - institutional solutions are lacking from government agenda, internal corporate policies, sector campaigns; -there is little promotion of gender equality in the media world; - gender perspective is missing from information broadcast; - EU directives concerning gender mainstreaming have not been implemented; 2. Law: - National Broadcast Council (responsible for controlling the media and Advertising, issuing concessions for emission) does not monitor or promote gender equality; - the Act on Public Benefit Organizations of 24th April 2003 which compels public media to give free access to public benefit NGOs is not being executed (as a result also women rights organizations' access to the media is hampered); there is just one article of the Television and Radio Act that refers to gender equality directly: art 18 point 1 (which can be translated as follows: 1. Programmes or other broadcasts may not encourage actions contrary to law and Poland’s raison d’Etat or propagate attitudes and beliefs contrary to the moral values and social interest. In particular, they may not include contents inciting to hatred or discriminating on grounds of race, disability, sex, religion or nationality. 3. Online media: - little is known about female users of the internet; research is lacking; - the governmental strategy for the development of electronic media in the years 2005-2020 does not mention gender problematic in any way.

Key information on EU or National policies/legislation on women's' representation in advertisement:

National gender mainstreaming policies are lacking; the only article of the Television and Radio Act which refers to discrimination in commercials is: Article 16b point 3. [the article can be translated as follows: Commercial communications shall not: 1) prejudice respect for human dignity, 2) include any discrimination on grounds of race, sex, nationality, ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation]

Key information on trends and challenges on women and the media:

1. Attitude of the media towards gender equality - the androcentic perspective is a norm in the media: - the attitude towards gender equality is generally unwelcoming with the exception of left-wing or culturally liberal media (which promote it) and right wing media (which picture feminism as a threat to the nation); - women experts are often identified with social, family or children problematic; - gender related problematic in the media is most often: domestic violence, sexual harassment, women politicians, gender equality at work, glass ceiling, women and public life, men and housework; - problematic of women rights and problems is ghettoed; - problems of sexual minorities are marginal in the media; - problems of groups such as the elderly, where women account for the majority, are marginal in the media; - in the press and advertising campaigns women are frequently pictured as victims of symbolic and physical violence; - very often feminists and feminist actions are presented in negative light; - gender equality policies introduced in other countries are often mocked or pictured as nonsense, little effort is made to understand their rationale) - there are no significant differences between public and private media with respect to gender equality; 2. Women as decision-makers in the media: Women advance to decision-making positions in the press about twice less often than men; the exception are the 10 most widely read women magazines where women editors in chief account for 60% and 100% of deputy editors in chief) 3. commercials: women pictured most often as sexual objects or housekeepers (no exact data cited);

Key stakeholders mentioned:

Polish government, National Broadcasting Council, EU Commission, Public Television

Format: pdf