Nigerian Women in Negative Spotlight: A Call for Change By Zeenat Sambo

Breaking Gender Stereotypes

Nigerian Women in Negative Spotlight: A Call for Change

By Zeenat Sambo

All over the world, the media plays a crucial role in promoting gender equality and women’s rights as well as protecting women. It is undoubted that the media shapes public perceptions, influences social norms and drives conversations on important issues across the globe.

Women’s rights and gender equality are interwoven and the media takes responsibility for both of them.

By highlighting issues like gender-based violence, discrimination and unequal access to opportunities, the media has over the years used the tools to educate the public and policymakers, leading to greater awareness and understanding.

The media can also serve as a platform for advocacy and activism. This is an important way in which women’s rights activists can amplify their voices, providing them with a larger audience in which to advocate for change and fight discrimination.

Also Read: Nigerian Women in the Eye of a Misogynistic Press: A Call for Action, by Rahma Oladosu

However, the continuous reportage on Nigerian women as the most unfaithful in the world leaves a sour taste in the mouth and it is a very unfair stereotype.

A report titled, “Nigerian women are most unfaithful in the world – Durex,” has been trending all over the internet for some years.

Though the original report was published in 2012, it is shocking to see it still trending in 2023. Aside from lacking basic facts, the weak attempt to impugn on the integrity of Nigerian women through false narratives is really unfortunate.

Same story, same claim, same lackadaisical poor reportage on Nigeria women now came back to dominate the space in 2023. The poor piece lacks every bit of professionalism and standard elements of news reporting.

The poor piece of writing was later fact-checked by PRNigeria on the 20th September, 2023, and the claim on Nigerian women being largely promiscuous was found to be false. Obviously, the narrative which circulated on mainstream, online, and social media that Nigerian women are the most unfaithful in the world was based on the misrepresentation of a survey on condom use, according to PRNigeria.

“Since we could not discover the survey on the website of Durex including www.durexme.com/, a search on ‘infidelity’ and ‘unfaithful nation’ led us to STATISTA, the respected portal on data and statistics with a published survey in 2017 on the “Most Unfaithful nationalities” where countries were ranked. Using the percentage of married adults who have admitted having an affair, Thailand ranked first at 51%, followed by Denmark at 46%, Italy 45%, France 43%, Norway 41%, Belgium 40%, Spain 39%, United Kingdom 36% and Finland 36%. Nigeria was NOT listed or mentioned,” the PRNigeria report read in part.

The fact-check further revealed that the Durex survey was misrepresented and mischievously misinterpreted for sensationalism on Nigerian women by mainstream and online media.

Accordingly, research conducted in over 100 countries states that 46 percent of all news stories uphold negative gender stereotypes, while only six percent highlight gender equality.

There is no doubt that the media plays a major role in fixing gender stereotypes that affect how we think and act. The fact that the story appeared on the pages of reputable newspapers in Nigeria is a serious indictment on our professionalism, credibility, thoroughness and attention to details. The media is supposed have gatekeepers who vet their output, so, it is embarrassing to see such content being put out.

Introspection on the report would have shown that the story was an old falsehood that should have been ignored. It is improper to tag the womenfolk in a web of promiscuity in a country where majority of the women are fighting tooth and nail, making sacrifices in the face of adversity to take care of their husbands and children.

Rather than joining the mob to undeservedly shame women, Nigerian media should spotlight the greatness of the women and celebrate the professionals and business leaders who are making the country proud both locally and internationally.

For our women’s integrity to be protected, we must work together as individuals, communities, institutions, and governments to create a more inclusive and equitable society. To ensure that women are treated with the respect they deserve, it is essential to raise awareness, challenge biases and advocate for change.

Irresponsible reporting can contribute to victim-blaming and reinforce stereotypes. It is important that media organisations are committed to ethical journalism practices and gender-sensitive reporting guidelines to keep our country sane and stable.

Join the crusade! Stop the stereotype!