African Centre for Women in Journalism

African Centre for Women in Journalism (ACWJ), is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting excellence, diversity, equality and freedom of expression for women journalists across Africa. We empower female journalists to produce high quality, fact-based reporting that enhances coverage, analysis and consumption of salient issues in the media, holds the powerful accountable and gives a voice to the marginalized. For many years, Journalism has been male-dominated, with women facing barriers to entry and advancement. However, in the recent past, women have made significant progress in the field, breaking the status-quo, making a name for themselves as influential journalists and media personalities. But despite these advancements, women in journalism continue to face challenges such as gender bias, unequal pay, limited opportunities for career advancement, given less prestigious assignments or relegated to "soft" news, such as lifestyle and entertainment. Yet women journalists present with unique opportunities and abilities of telling stories from their unique perspectives. Women journalists can provide insight and perspective on issues that affect women, such as gender inequality, reproductive rights, and workplace harassment. Besides, with women journalists’ coverage of such universally salient topics as Climate Change, women journalists can bring out with utmost clarity their fellow women first-hand experiences as they passionately tell stories that, for example, promote such practices as clean cooking with improved cook-stoves, that save 80% of fuel-wood, thereby limiting fossil fuels, tree cutting, and mitigating climate change in the long-run. The ACWJ, therefore, was birthed to provide room for building women journalists’ capacities, networking opportunities that involve building relationships with other professionals in the field, including other journalists, editors, and industry leaders; open spaces