Women must not be called 'housewife': Kerala Women's Commission

Kollam: Demanding a replacement for the term ‘housewife’ with alternatives that do not propagate stereotypes about unemployed women, the Kerala Women's Commission (WC) proposed guidelines for media to eliminate gender bias in reporting narrative language. WC submitted its suggestions for implementation before the government.

As per the proposed guidelines, WC stressed that headlines that trivialise women’s roles, such as "steering safe in these hands wearing bangles" to describe women entering professional spaces, must be avoided. Reportages with creative expressions or poetic language that undermine the dignity and identity of women should not be aired. The commission said that narratives that imply inferior judgement of women or usages that blame women for decisions that lead to problems, demeaning the intellect of women, must be avoided.

The WC further said that sensationalising women’s roles in certain news occurrences with headlines like ‘mother of two elopes with lover’ must be stopped. The tasks of cooking, cleaning, and childcare that are portrayed as women’s responsibilities must be discouraged. This must be followed by picturing education, health, investments and military service as male domains. Headlines must avoid sexual undertones such as ‘sexy Sharapova’, the WC noted.

The commission recommended framing an urgent style guide for gender-equitable Malayalam vocabulary for official and media use. The government needed to form a committee of experts, which has language scholars, gender justice specialists and representatives from institutions like the Kerala Bhasha Institute and the Kerala Media Academy etc, and the committee must include as many women experts as possible, the WC recommended. It added that such a style guide must be prepared in six months.