"I expected a male reporter" : a qualitative interview-study of the Kerala working culture in media newsrooms

Abstract: This thesis is a qualitative interview-study of the working conditions for female journalists within an Indian and Keralan context focusing on the female body and spaces. The study takes place in the Keralan society focusing on how women journalists cope with working in a traditional male dominated area and how the female body somehow is seen as an invader in the journalism field, based on pre-assumptions on sex and gender and female placement. From a persepctive of gender theory, mainly drawn on Judith Butler´s and Nirmal Puwar´s theories on gendered spaces and the female body, the study discusses strategies based on the female interviewees own perspectives and experiences working as professional journalists in a society as Kerala, where patriarchal structures still play a dominant role in the division of labor in both the private and the public sphere. In line with the personal experiences of the interviewees, the thesis finds that their work is repeatedly defined through their femininity and with an underlying focus on their body and appearance – a space invader in the journalism field. Although, several of the interviewees experienced a greater focus on gender sensibility within the media newsrooms in India over the last years and a greater improvement in gender equity. Furthermore, the study concludes that the women journalists still struggle with combining their role as journalists and mothers because of strong family norms and traditions in Kerala that affect women’s possibilities in working on the same conditions as men. The thesis also states that the great focus on the female body as symbol for motherhood or sexual object is strong, constantly being valued and judged when entering a certain field.