International Feminist Radioday 2019

Today is International Feminist Radioday! The International Feminist Radioday today will feature over 24 hours of feminist content from over 12 editorial teams in 3 german-speaking countries. The  broadcasts will include content against the patriarchy with feminist music, interviews, stories, features, shows and discussions.

Why do we need a feminist radioday?

According to a study by the ZHAW less than 39% of the people who shape what we listen and see in Switzerland are women. ProQuote claims that only 2 of 12 public radio stations are directed by women. In these statistics people who identify as trans*, inter or non-binary are not even visible. Chief editors are usually male, the images of women and girls in media are full of clichés, many journalists suffer from sexual assaults at their workplace, topics are distributed according to gender roles – the list of reasons to focus on feminist media coverage is long. Community radios are non-commercial, open and self-determined and have therefore functioned as platform for those, who’s voices are often not heard. The working conditions for women, inter, non-binary and trans are therefore less harsh than in mainstream media. Nonetheless patriarchal power-structures are also present in our field of work. It is mostly male voices which we hear, also in community radio.  In 2017 many editorial teams met for the feminist radio event “Claim the Waves” in Zurich. They decided to network and annually claim the airwaves together on the 21st of October. Feminist journalism means to these editorial teams, that they broadcast their own views, music, topics and listen to people and stories which are usually ignored.

The program schedule is available on https://claimthewaves.noblogs.org