Gender disparity and stereotypes in the world of communication

Moderator: Loredana Cornero

Rapporteurs: Cecilia Robustelli (Italy), Maria Carreras y Goicoechea (Spanih), Susi Ronchi (Italy), Alicia Oliver Rojo (Spanish), María Elena Hermosilla (Chilean), Maura Brescia (Chilean), Virginia Ciaravolo (Italian), Marta Rulln (Spanish).

After the introduction of the moderator Loredana Cornero who recalls the commitment on the subject of sexism in the language since the 70s and in particular the volume «The sexism of the Italian language» by Alma Sabatini, the first intervention is by Cecilia Robustelli, professor of Italian Linguistics at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, collaborator of the Accademia della Crusca and vice-president of the European Federation of National Institutions for the Language.

Her report traces the qualifying points of discussion on the relationship between language and sexual difference and her reflections on the use of language, with particular reference to the representation of women, and examines recent proposals to replace grammatical endings with a symbol. and the possibility of its concrete implementation.

The second intervention by María Carreras y Goicoechea, professor at the University of Catania, proposes a reflection on a corpus of titles on Covid-19 with the aim of avoiding the perpetuation of patriarchal models through an (in)voluntarily sexist use of language, on the one hand, and the exclusion of those who do not recognize themselves in the traditional binary model, with the study of some Spanish and Latin American newspaper headlines, which offer examples of consolidated use that can be taken as a model of good practices for an inclusive language .

Susi Ronchi, journalist for Rai TGR, Coordinator of Giulia Giornaliste Sardegna, recounts some of the most recent data on gender equality in the media, detected by the latest monitoring carried out by the GMMP (Global Media Monitoring Project), which shows a significant decrease attendance of women as experts from 18% in 2015 to 12% in traditional media in 2020.

Maura Brescia, journalist, with film and television production studies, presents a video that traces the arduous path of Chilean and Latin American writers for their literary recognition. An investigation that, starting from the first writers, including two nuns from the convent of Santiago from the 16th century, covers the prism of female narrators and novelists at a continental level and their long struggle against gender discrimination, which continues to the present day.

The panel closes with the intervention of Virginia Ciaravolo who underlines the close relationship between femicides and the violence of language, as well as the embarrassing communication of the media about violence against women that must be absolutely changed.

Added to the Minutes of the Congress is the interesting speech by Marta Rullan, director of the EFE Agency in Italy, which begins with the following statement: “Despite the current uncertainty in which society is immersed, there is a fundamental certainty: information is a right and its restriction, the violation of a fundamental freedom to understand the world in which we live”.

In this context, she stresses, «talking about women and the media today is talking about how access to management, where the decisions that make a difference are made, is still closed to female journalists, since only 24% of managerial positions in the media is occupied by women in the Spain of the 21st century, a small advance that shows how long the road to equality is”.