Women, Media and Democracy: A Correlative Study in Indian Context

Women have always faced marginalization and exclusion. In the patriarchal social system, men have always been at the centre and women at the periphery. It’s true that things are now changing on world scenario. Women are creating a niche in every field but still in India as well as in most of countries of the world, they are facing gender discrimination. Media—electronic and print plays a crucial role in bringing revolution by changing people’s opinion, perspective towards anything. It has power to convince or dissuade people on any issue concerned. The image of women as created and presented by media means a lot for men and the entire society. There is wide scope to believe that media supports the stereotyped image of women—women as objects of beauty and having no other identity; slim, gentle, weak women. Such gender discrimination is not acceptable for a democratic system. Democratization process is incomplete if women do not get identity and dignity like men. This paper aims to correlate role and image of woman in media and democracy.