“Like many other sectors, gender discrimination has remained the worst vice in media houses and newsrooms. It is unfortunately a notorious fact that gender discrimination is a problem in Zambia and it has been a trend in Zambia's fourth estate that most media outlets are headed and dominated by the male gender. The female gender has remained marginalized not because of education but because of the masculine nature of men. There has been cases of stereotyping and such have not yet been broken and unless and until the female gender becomes more assertive coupled with gender mainstreaming, the journalism family will remain gender discriminative.” – Respondent It is clear that persistent discriminatory practices, social norms and stereotypes which perpetuate inequitable access to opportunities, resources and power exist within the Zambian media industry. Those who were most affected by gender based discrimination are often those at the lower levels of the professional tier. The majority of the respondents to this study are in the 25 to 34 age group, as this is the group most likely to have a cohort of media professional's at lower levels. There are various factors leading to gender discrimination in media in Zambia. This could be attributed to: 1.Culture that allows men to be the decision makers and the leaders in top positions. This is because men are to be the head of the house. 2.Myths that allows women to be considered lazy e.g. cannot write and produce on time and also that women cannot head certain demanding media departments e.g. newsroom and camera section. 3.Most women are not given an opportunity to air out their views on what matters. “Women are the most disadvantaged hence the majority are not educated and given an opportunity to further their studies.” – Respondent “It is(a problem) since news is now a competitive arena. Most news rooms will not assign a female reporter at a campaign rally or a by-election in a rural setting on account of this; or at times females are usually very reluctant to do so because of a superiority attitude which manifests itself in'female reporters' shunning assignments involving a lot of leg­walk. Though many females enrol in training institutions, the picture is that in newsrooms, most are confined to casting the news, continuity announcement on radio or television, while in the print media females tend to report from the courts which consolidates this stereotyped viewpoint. In addition, female journalists prefer working as Public Relations Officers. Secondly, the dress code and prioritization of cosmetics tend to side-line female reporters as the male-dominated media ownership does not want to appoint females to senior positions.” – Respondent 3.2 How often does gender discrimination take place in Zambian media workplaces? In order to further establish how big problem gender discrimination is in Zambian media workplaces, MMA asked those media workers who had been victims of the practice how often it occurred. Their responses revealed startling statistics shown below. 15