Ghana Women Experts has released a new report on women in media in Ghana on the amount of airtime dedicated to featuring women experts on radio.

The report involved daily monitoring of four selected radio programs during the third week of each month from February to May 2023. In the study from the third week of February, a total of 291 general interviews and 259 expert interviews were conducted and found that out of the 259 expert interviews on the shows, only 30 were women representing 5.37%.

Basically, the report found out there are seven male experts to one female expert (7:1) on morning radio shows in Ghana.

The report details that in all stations, 23 hours of radio airtime was allotted to all experts. In contrast to their male counterparts, the report found that 30 women experts collectively were given a total of 3 hours and 41 minutes across the four shows in the week.

This implies that each individual female expert was allotted approximately a total of seven minutes and four seconds of airtime for the whole week if they were to appear consistently on any one of the shows throughout the five days compared to male experts who would have five minutes.

The report also highlighted that even though there was an increase in the number of female correspondents in March (Women’s History Month) during the research for the report, it did not reflect in the number of presenters nor female experts used on radio shows.

The report concluded that based on the evidence from the data, it suggests that the representation of female expert voices still remains unvalued in the Ghanaian media landscape despite sensitization and advocacy efforts.