No Country for Old Patriarchies
Coming Soon…
“We know that the revolution is our priority,” says Aung, a female journalist working for the popular media news outlet Mizzima News. “Our priority right now is to take down the military dictatorship. At the same time, however, we should remind people of the value of our [women’s] rights, so that they think hard about them. After all, are women’s rights not human rights, too?”
Aung’s career in journalism began over a decade and a half ago, in 2007, against the backdrop of the Saffron Revolution, and she has worked for a number of national and international news agencies since then. Beyond her commitment to journalism, she has champions women’s rights and gender equality in the profession.
Aung begins by examining the improvements that Burmese women enjoyed during the transition period. “For example, in the 2020 elections, [a good percentage] of all parliamentary candidates were women,” she says. “Many of the winning candidates were also women.” However, following the military coup in 2021, things got a whole lot worse again.
Recently, Aung became the General Secretary of the Myanmar Women Journalist Society, an initiative founded in 2016 that provides a space for female journalists from across Myanmar to connect and share relevant information and resources. In 2023, she and her colleagues launched the “Myanmar Women in Media” initiative aimed at creating networking opportunities across the media landscape. This effort has been particularly crucial in the aftermath of the military coup, which has severely limited professional opportunities. “We wanted to expand our network,” she says. “We intend to include not just more female journalists, but also other more females from similar professions—filmmakers, video editors, podcasters, fact-checkers, newsroom anchors, and newsroom presenters.”
Moreover, because of the coup, both male and female journalists face unprecedented challenges in their profession. Arbitrary arrests and detentions have become increasingly commonplace. “It can happen whenever!” Aung exclaims. “You may be sitting here one minute and then, moments later, be put under arrest. You may not even be in the profession anymore, and still be under that threat. The military does not care! In fact, [an informant] could just send the military a message one day, claiming he or she is a journalist or is in contact with the National Unity Government, [leading] to them getting arrested!”
Living in such dangerous circumstances is untenable, and so most journalists—along with their organizations—have been forced to relocate to Thailand and India, and, more recently, Bangladesh. They are often undocumented, especially those in border towns like Mae Sot. Still others have opted to flee to the so-called liberated areas in the thick jungles of Myanmar’s countryside that are controlled by the various Ethnic Resistance Organizations (EROs) and People’s Defense Forces (PDFs).
Yet despite these immense, shared challenges and risks, the gender disparity in the field is still glaringly evident. For example, Aung notes that male journalists are regularly given opportunities to go and report from the frontlines: career-making postings which are most often not assigned to women, for reasons that she labels chauvinistic. “The male journalists and editors think, ‘Women should not be allowed to go to the frontlines, to conflict zones.’ But, they had not even asked for our opinions!” she exclaims. However, she adds that thankfully, there are some exceptions to the rule. “Some newsrooms do have female reporters and journalists on the frontline, which I consider, indeed, to be an effort at better representing us.”
Female journalists face the additional challenge of navigating a demanding career while still needing to shoulder the primary responsibility for family caregiving—a deeply-rooted expectation in many traditional Burmese households—which pits their professional aspirations against societal pressures to fulfill domestic duties. Aung notes that a question women in the newsroom often get is, “If your child were sick, would you still be able to continue your work?” Their employers see this tension as undermining women's desirability as employees.
As dangerous as the frontlines can be, just newsrooms themselves can have their own set of challenges for women. Aung has documented numerous cases of sexual harassment from superiors, and even sources. “Some men in senior management roles ask for sex,” she says. “Before our female journalists can even think about denying these requests, they are forced to ask themselves, ‘Will this impact my work? My career?’” Respondents and sources sometimes even extend this harassment after hours, directly into the woman’s home. For example, “They go, ‘Hey you, show me your photos!’” If the woman complains or doesn’t comply, it can impact their hiring and promotion. Indeed, Aung’s research has revealed an overall underrepresentation of women in top management across media houses, and even more concerning, when male participants in the study were asked why this was, they answered that they believed women who were not promoted by definition were probably “not qualified.”
Aung's research also delves into the unique set of challenges faced by the LGBT community. She references a statement from a trans friend who expressed concern that Burmese men often think it is easier to coerce an LGBT individual into unwanted sexual activities. The overall toxic environment of the newsroom makes some journalists uncomfortable to openly come out of the closet. “We have invited members of the LGBT community to get their voices heard clearly in our board meetings,” she says. “We have in mind their participation and best interests.”
Aung and her team began investigating instances of gender-based harassment and discrimination earlier this year as part of a broader research project. The report, titled “Crisis under the Coup” seeks to address three main issues: the challenges faced by female journalists, incidents of gender discrimination, and cases of sexual harassment. “We began this to collect concrete evidence and details for everyone to see.” She hopes that their findings will, in turn, provide recommendations for what relevant stakeholders can do to help.
Interestingly, Aung explains that this issue has taken on a new dimension in the post-coup environment. Independent media, now operating in exile, must compete for a shrinking pool of grant support from a limited number of aid organizations in order to survive, being unable to rely on past business models. “Obviously, after the coup, the main source of income for media organizations has become donors and individual donor organizations,” she says. “Thus, before donors decide to offer money or grants to a certain media organizations, they could request to see and review their recipient’s anti-gender discrimination policies, anti-sexual harassment policies, or both. This could most definitely act as a pivot point for change.” This could significantly influence the adoption of similar policies across the media landscape. “Regardless of their size, they should have anti-discrimination policies,” she adds. Despite pushback from some donor organizations that they have no interest in imposing this level of control, Aung continues to push for this policy change.
Aung doesn’t hesitate to call out the superficial measures that some media organizations have taken in response. She characterizes them as being driven more by external pressures, such as donor demands, than by a genuine commitment to equality. “The fight for gender equality should be sustained. It should be continuous. It should not be for just six months or a year, but continuous. We should always be thinking about gender equality.” She stresses that these principles must be integral to change, and not merely given lip service. “If you do not digest or understand these concepts or these issues, everything you do will merely be for the short term. That is why we are considering starting workshops for men on the importance of gender equality and the derogatory nature of sexual harassment.”
Recognizing the value of support from allies across the border, as well as overseas, Aung says, “To be honest, we need alliances, If we had alliances and connections with foreign journalists, particularly from Thailand, they could offer much-needed help and support, ‘How should we do this? How should we do that?’ We could ask them these kinds of things.”
Some in the resistance have suggested that toppling the military should take precedence over discussions on gender-based discrimination. However, similar to what Hnin Thet Hmu Khin shared on a recent podcast episode, Aung asserts that the fight against dictatorship and the struggle for gender equality are in fact inseparable, and she believes a commitment to that synergy should define the revolution. She emphasizes that rather than viewing these efforts as competing priorities, it would be more effective to recognize them as parts of the same fight, driven by shared values and objectives. To her, this perspective encourages a more holistic and integrated approach to achieving true justice and equality.
Aung closes by insisting that the fight for greater rights is not a quest for dominance. Instead, she and her colleagues are focused on uplifting women while creating ample space for men to get equally involved. “Personally, I do not want us exercising some form of dominance over the men. When we think about our organization’s structure, we think, ‘We need to include the men’s perspectives as well,’ which is why we even invited men to our Board of Directors.” Thus, far from looking to form a countervailing matriarchy, Aung imagines a world where female journalists report freely and fiercely alongside their male counterparts on the frontlines in the heat of battles, where women equally participate in board meetings, and where there is a safe and secure workplace, in a free society, for both men and women.