In recent years we have seen women take over in the film industry globally. The amount of female leads has shot up in recent years with more and more female leads taking on strong positions. From films like Game of Thrones to Wonder Woman, and even in the most recent fan favourite Black Panther. Female leads are being portrayed as more powerful, independent and respected characters. The misconceived tradition of having female leads to make the male leads look better is no longer applicable in the film industry. This surge of girl power and feminism has spread globally.
Ms. President is a great chance for Kenyans to see all that women can do. Ms. President is first of its kind show with the aim of encouraging females to take charge of all aspects of their lives and the hope of changing the view of Kenyans towards women and leadership. This is a program created through the partnership of Media focus on Africa and MUHURI (Muslims for Human Rights). This will not only be a program to entertain but to educate. The program will hopefully change perceptions within the society that women shouldn’t have leadership positions.
The Ms. President leadership TV show will inspire women and girls to become key players in leadership in all spheres of life. Applications opened on the 5th of June and will close on July 27th 2018. The forms can be downloaded here or express interest by accessing forms from Media Focus on Africa through [email protected]. The Ms. President TV show is being sponsored by The European Union.
This will be a great change for the media as it will portray women as they have never been portrayed before, in charge of things. It will hopefully create a discussion about women and leadership. Generally, women in the media are portrayed just as support leads or additional characters. This has been carried along from leadership in the country. The two-thirds rule has not been implemented yet and Kenya has the lowest female representation in East Africa.
Ms. President will change norms in the media industry and hopefully in the country as well. We need more women to take on the mantle of leadership. We need more female role models to show our young teens and children that women can be in power too. We need to show them a different side of the coin, a world where they could be anything they want to be, even the president.
The program is a very welcome refreshing idea from the media industry. We need something to stir up a change and this might just be it. Hopefully, more and more productions will sprout following this first bold lead. We can only keep our fingers crossed that this will be the case.
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