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By Jemimah Dada 

“Mata adon gari” is a phrase I and a thousand other northern Nigerian ladies have grown to become attuned to. When loosely interpreted, this phrase translates to “women are the beauty of society”.

Over the years, women in several parts of Nigeria have been eulogized and projected as an integral part of society.
Our praises have been sung from the streets of Kano, down to the creeks of Ibadan, from the bubbling city of Lagos to the trade city of Onitsha, but amid these eulogies, one thing keeps bugging the mind.

What we have consistently heard and seen about the uniqueness of women seems to be different from the realities on the ground.
The female gender has been relegated to the background in many professions. In journalism, for instance, we (females) make the loudest noise while on Campus but upon graduation, we are nowhere to be found in the field. When the time to actively play a role comes, we are benched and made to watch the game from a distance, not as a coach but as mere speculators.

That said, Studying mass communication for me has always been a thing I cherished, my confidence level has always been on a different level and I believed entirely that being in this field would give me the needed platform to exhibit my skill and express myself in the best way possible.

The journey began on a good note until I noticed the disparity between the classroom and the field. While the classroom is filled with ladies, one would think it’ll be a similar scenario on the field, however, the reverse was the case.

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In rare occasions where I’ve seen ladies actively involved in journalism, the majority of them are found at the bottom of the hierarchy while male journalists occupy higher positions. In other cases, female journalists are assigned to Aoft beats like fashion and entertainment while hard beats like politics, health and sports are covered by their male counterparts.

Another discrepancy I noticed was meted out to female journalists is the undermining of their competence by male journalists. The patriarchal nature of our society has given the male gender a false sense of superiority and expertise which diminish the ideas and contributions of female journalists. And although the world has evolved and a significant change has begun, a lot still needs to be done.

All that I noticed about journalism made me reluctant about the profession.
My major challenge as a newbie was how to fit into an industry which is populated by ladies yet unfriendly and rigid to us.
How do I grow?

What support systems are available for me?
How do I get mentorship?
Who would reassure and boost my confidence on days I get overwhelmed?
Are there chances of getting to the peak of my career?
All these questions and more bugged my mind. And as I pondered on them an idea dropped…

“Volunteering“
At first, I wondered what an “amateur undergraduate” like me could offer to my Campus radio as a volunteer, but I defied the odds anyway and applied regardless.
Fortunately, I scaled through the auditioning process and began my journey as a student journalist.

As a volunteer with Click 89.9 FM IBBUL, I had the rare privilege of meeting seasoned journalists, I covered events within and outside my Campus, and I went on Seminars and training which helped to broaden my horizon. I met female journalists who have been able to carve out a name for themselves irrespective of the challenges faced by women in the industry. This alone gave me a boost and made me believe that impossibility is a facade; a false illusion that deters.

If asked what the major highlight of my journey as a female journalist is, I’d boldly scream to the rooftops that Volunteering was everything I needed on this journey.

In the course of volunteering, I also spread my tentacles to the print media and got published in the Nations Newspaper, Something I dreamt of for a long time and never believed it’ll materialize this early.

It’s been a little over 4 years since I started as a student journalist, and although there are challenges, I’m not ignorant of them and cannot be caught unaware by them.
And like William Hazlitt said “If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory.”

My faith in journalism is undaunted and the challenges notwithstanding I am winning.
Breaking the gender Barrier as female journalists might seem like a herculean task, but we will keep hitting the rock and creating a crack because one day, it’ll break.