The Perception Gap: Two Worlds, One Newsroom – A Challenge to Every Editor in The Gambia

ANALYSIS/COMMENTARY

By Muhammed Lamin Drammeh

The author is a Master’s candidate in Journalism & Communication specializing in International Communication at the Communication University of China. This article is based on his thesis research examining career progression for women journalists in The Gambia.

An editor sits in his office and describes a workplace where gender equality is strictly observed. Promotions, he says, follow clear, merit-based rules. Men and women are fairly treated in all aspects of the job. Forty meters away, a woman with thirteen years of experience in that same newsroom describes a different world. Promotions, she says, are not based on merit at all. Sometimes they depend on how long you have been there or who you know. She is not lying, and he is not lying. They work in the same building, but they live in different worlds.

This is what my research calls the perception gap. From November 2025 to February 2026, I sat with seventeen journalists and editors across three Gambian media organizations – a state broadcaster, a private newspaper, and a digital platform. I listened to women describe their daily struggles, and I listened to their editors describe workplaces that barely resembled what the women were experiencing. The gap between those two versions of reality may be the single biggest barrier to gender equality in our newsrooms today. But this article is not just about the problem. It is about solutions that can actually work.

Let me start with what the numbers tell us. According to the Gambia Press Union’s 2020 study on working conditions, women make up 37 percent of journalists in this country. Nearly four in ten journalists are women. They are present, working, and qualified. The same GPU study found that 46 percent of all respondents faced workplace discrimination based on their gender or family circumstances. A separate GPU study on sexual harassment, also from 2020, found the problem so widespread that it led to the drafting of a national sexual harassment policy for the media. On International Women’s Day in 2022, the Gambia Press Union stated: “Despite this feat, which shows that there isn’t a lack of knowledge and skills among women journalists, editorial boards and decision-making positions in newsrooms are mainly dominated by men.”

Now look at leadership. Across the three organizations I examined, women hold about 20 percent of leadership positions at the state broadcaster, about 25 percent at a major private newspaper, and zero percent at a prominent digital platform. Zero. Not low, not underrepresented, but zero. The qualifications are there, the skills are there, and the women are there. So what is missing?

When I asked editors how promotions work in their organizations, they described formal criteria, documented procedures, and meritocratic systems. One editor told me that promotion criteria are formally documented and keenly observed. Another said opportunities for advancement are equal for men and women. A third stressed that his organization follows a strict policy of gender equality. Then I asked women journalists the same question. Their answers were completely different. A veteran with thirteen years of experience told me that promotions are not based on merit or productivity, but sometimes on longevity or who you know. Another journalist with five years of experience said advancement depends on visibility, relationships, and being consistently noticed. A third called the promotion process informal rather than clearly structured and completely dependent on personal networks. At one digital platform, a journalist said she has never seen anyone promoted and has never seen any procedure or conditions laid out for promotion. The most junior journalist in my study, with just two years of experience, told me she is not really sure about promotion opportunities and has not seen any clear pathways.

Some editors blame women’s preparation for the leadership gap. One suggested that women journalists often enter the newsroom slightly less prepared than their male counterparts. This explanation is comfortable for management because it blames women and suggests a simple solution: train women better. It requires no hard examination of promotion systems, assignment protocols, or workplace culture. But the Gambia Press Union has already answered this argument. Women journalists have acquired diplomas, advanced diplomas, and degrees. The persistent underrepresentation of women in leadership shows that there is no lack of knowledge and skills among women journalists. The problem is not women’s resumes. The problem is the systems that evaluate them, the networks that advance them, and the assumptions that limit them.

Beyond the perception gap, my research documented five concrete barriers that explain the leadership gap. First, assignment bias. Men get the high-profile beats like political coverage, executive office reporting, and sports. These assignments build the portfolios, networks, and visibility necessary for editorial leadership. Excluding women from them is excluding them from the career ladder entirely. A key informant from the Gambia Press Union explained that women are often excluded from high impact assignments due to cultural biases and scheduling practices that favor men for late-night or travel-intensive reporting. Second, there is no protection from harassment. The Women Journalists Association of The Gambia key informant reports that at least 50 percent of women journalists who participated in a study conducted, have experienced harassment, yet there is a culture of silence and fear of retaliation. There are no confidential reporting channels, no protection from retaliation, and no clear consequences for perpetrators. Third, the second shift. Editors make decisions about married women’s availability without ever consulting them. One senior journalist and mother told me that assignments were given to others without anyone asking her, which directly limits her professional opportunities. Her male colleagues face nothing like this because no one assumes a father is unavailable or less committed. Fourth, low pay creates a foundational barrier. A journalist with twelve years of experience told me that success begins when your salary can take you forward, not when you are surviving from paycheck to paycheck. When a woman lives paycheck to paycheck, she cannot afford to lose her job or file a complaint. Economic fear silences her. Fifth and most important, the perception gap itself stands as a barrier. When editors do not see the problem, nothing changes.

Yet despite these obstacles, the women I spoke with are not passive victims waiting to be rescued. One journalist who was repeatedly denied political coverage requested a meeting with her editor, prepared a portfolio of her best work, and made her case based on demonstrated capability. She became the parliamentary correspondent. Another learned to ask a simple question whenever sidelined: who said so, and if I am capable, there is no reason to sideline me.

Here is what needs to happen. For media organizations, the path forward is clear. Publish your promotion criteria and make them written, clear, and available to every staff member. No more visibility and relationships as the unwritten rule. Adopt the sexual harassment policy that the Gambia Press Union already validated. Create safe and confidential reporting channels, guarantee protection from retaliation, train all editors, and enforce real consequences. Conduct gender pay audits to find the gaps and then close them.

For the Gambia Press Union and the Women Journalists Association of The Gambia, the opportunity is to create and publish an annual Gender Equity in Media Scorecard. This scorecard would rate every major media house in the country on five key metrics. First, what percentage of leadership positions do women hold? Second, does the organization have a written and enforced anti-harassment policy? Third, does it have written and transparent promotion criteria? Fourth, does it have flexible work policies for caregivers? Fifth, what is the gender pay gap for equivalent roles? The scorecard should be published every year with names attached. Media houses that score well earn public recognition, and those that do not face public accountability. The GPU and WoJAG should also expand their mentorship programs to pair senior women journalists with junior women across different organizations, building the networks that women are currently excluded from. They should create legal aid and counseling services for women who experience harassment because the culture of silence will only break when there is somewhere safe to go.

The glass ceiling in Gambian media is revealed as a complex structure built from institutional opacity, gendered work allocation, policy deficits, economic precarity, and socio-cultural constraints, all reinforced by a major perceptual gap between editors and staff in the newsroom. Women journalists navigate this structure through a spectrum of agency from individual coping to transformative collective action, with professional associations playing a crucial intermediary role in contexts of institutional weakness. The way forward requires equally multifaceted, coordinated action. Media organizations must implement transparent, equitable systems. Professional associations must strengthen advocacy and support.

Ultimately, advancing gender equity in Gambian journalism is not merely a matter of fairness but of professional imperative and democratic necessity. A media that systematically excludes women’s perspectives, experiences, and leadership from its decision-making echelons cannot fully serve a diverse society or effectively hold power to account. The creativity, resilience, and insight demonstrated by the women journalists in this study represent untapped professional resources that could meaningfully strengthen Gambian media. The Gambia’s media sector can transition from merely describing the glass ceiling to actively dismantling it, creating a more equitable, representative, and strong fourth estate for the nation.