By Enock Sithole
Women entering Africa’s newsrooms continue to confront a difficult paradox: they are graduating from journalism schools in large numbers, yet relatively few remain long enough to rise into editorial leadership or media ownership.
Across the continent, concerns over sexual harassment, low pay, hostile digital environments and unequal career advancement are increasingly shaping discussions about the future of journalism — and prompting new efforts to support the next generation of women media leaders.
One such initiative, the Women Media Leaders of Tomorrow (WMLT) programme, is set to bring together female final-year journalism students from Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia for an intensive leadership course in Nairobi this August.
Professor Nancy Booker.
Led by The Aga Khan University Dean at the Graduate School of Media and Communications, Professor Nancy Booker, the initiative is being implemented in partnership with the Fojo Media Institute and supported by the European Union, alongside media development organisations including Thomson Media, Article 19, and other consortium partners.
The three-day residential programme, scheduled for 18–20 August, seeks to equip young women journalists with leadership, digital and newsroom survival skills at a time when women remain underrepresented in senior media positions across Africa, said Prof Booker.
“We keep losing a lot of women who enter the workplace,” said Prof Booker in an interview with AJENda. “Many female journalism students graduate, but they do not stay long in the profession.”
Prof Booker said the programme was developed in response to a persistent “leaky pipeline” in journalism, where women enter media schools in significant numbers but disappear from newsrooms within a few years.
The training will combine mentorship, practical newsroom exercises and leadership development, while also confronting the structural barriers women face in media workplaces. Participants will engage with early-career women journalists and editors who have built successful careers despite industry challenges.
Beyond technical journalism skills, the course will focus heavily on workplace realities — from newsroom culture and unequal promotion systems to online abuse and technology-assisted violence.
A continent-wide newsroom problem
The concerns raised by the programme reflect wider patterns across African media industries.
While women now make up substantial portions of journalism graduates in countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana, they remain significantly underrepresented in editorial decision-making roles, media ownership and executive leadership.
Studies conducted by media monitoring organisations and gender advocacy groups have consistently shown that newsroom leadership remains overwhelmingly male.
A 2024 leadership mapping report by WAN-IFRA’s Women in News programme found women occupied only 24% of editorial and business leadership positions across media organisations in Africa, the Arab region and Southeast Asia, while earlier research in South Africa, Ghana and other African countries identified persistent “glass ceilings” limiting women’s influence over newsroom decision-making and editorial agendas.
In many African countries, women journalists also continue to face severe safety risks both offline and online. Harassment ranges from inappropriate comments and discriminatory assignments to coercion, intimidation and sexual abuse within newsroom hierarchies.
According to findings referenced by the Association of Media Women in Kenya, approximately 38% of women surveyed reported experiencing sexual harassment in newsrooms. Media rights groups say the real figure may be even higher because many incidents go unreported due to fear of retaliation, reputational damage, or job loss.
The problem extends beyond traditional newsrooms. As African journalism increasingly shifts into digital-first environments, women journalists are also becoming primary targets of coordinated online abuse campaigns.
Women covering politics, corruption, gender issues, or conflict are especially vulnerable to cyber harassment, doxxing, threats of sexual violence and manipulated images spread through social media platforms. Digital attacks often aim to silence women journalists or push them out of public discourse entirely.
Media freedom advocates warn that technology-assisted violence is becoming one of the fastest-growing threats facing women in journalism globally, with African journalists particularly exposed because of weak cyber protection systems, limited institutional support and fragile labour protections.
Structural barriers push women out
Industry experts say the issue is not only harassment but also the structure of media work itself.
African newsrooms are increasingly characterised by unstable contracts, long and unpredictable working hours, shrinking salaries and growing pressure to produce content across multiple platforms. These conditions disproportionately affect women, especially those balancing caregiving responsibilities.
Many women journalists struggle to reconcile newsroom schedules with family obligations in societies where domestic labour still falls heavily on women. Maternity protections remain inconsistent across parts of the continent, while freelance and contract workers often receive little institutional support.
In some cases, women are excluded from major assignments such as political reporting, conflict coverage, or investigative journalism because editors perceive them as “unsuited” to demanding or dangerous beats. Such exclusions can limit career progression and leadership opportunities.
The organisers of the Nairobi initiative say these structural inequalities are central to the programme’s design.
“We want to build future women leaders, editors and innovators,” Prof Booker said, noting that the course would help participants navigate the “changing landscape” of journalism while developing confidence to pursue leadership positions.
Digital transformation creates both opportunities and risks
The programme also reflects growing concern about the digital skills gap facing many journalists across Africa.
As media organisations rapidly adopt artificial intelligence tools, data journalism, mobile reporting and multimedia storytelling, women risk being left behind if training opportunities are not equitably distributed.
Experts say unequal access to technology training often compounds existing gender disparities within newsrooms. Men are more frequently assigned technical roles involving digital production, investigative data work or newsroom innovation, while women are steered toward softer beats such as lifestyle or entertainment reporting.
At the same time, digital media has also opened new opportunities for women journalists and entrepreneurs to build independent platforms outside traditional gatekeeping structures. Across Africa, women-led podcasts, investigative platforms, climate journalism initiatives and digital newsrooms are beginning to reshape media ecosystems.
Still, sustainability remains a major challenge. Many women-led media startups struggle with funding constraints, unequal advertising markets and online harassment.
Building leadership early
The organisers believe interventions targeting journalism students before they enter the workforce could help address these long-standing challenges.
The Nairobi programme builds on pilot initiatives previously implemented in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in 2025. Organisers say lessons from those programmes have been adapted to suit the realities of East African newsrooms.
Participants will come from universities in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia and will engage in practical simulations grounded in contemporary newsroom practice.
The initiative arrives at a critical moment for African journalism. Media organisations across the continent are grappling with political pressure, financial instability and rapid technological disruption. In such an environment, advocates argue that retaining women in journalism is not simply a gender issue, but a question of newsroom diversity, democratic representation and the future sustainability of the profession itself.
For many young women entering the industry, the challenge is no longer merely getting into journalism school. It is surviving the newsroom long enough to lead it.