WTO boss welcomes bias ruling over “grandmother” gibe
The Aargauer Zeitung newspaper ran the headline “This grandmother will become the boss of the WTO” after Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed in March
The head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has welcomed a ruling by the Swiss media regulator which found that a newspaper headline describing her as a “grandmother” after her appointment to lead the global body was gender-biased.
The Aargauer Zeitung newspaper ran the headline “This grandmother will become the boss of the WTO”, after Mrs Okonjo-Iweala was appointed in March.
The paper apologised following widespread criticism, saying its headline had been “inappropriate and unsuitable”.
Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian-American, is a widely respected Harvard-educated development economist.
She served as finance and foreign affairs minister in Nigeria and worked for 25 years at the World Bank.
The 67-year-old is the first African and the first woman to lead the WTO. She tweeted on Thursday that the Swiss Press Council was right for calling out gender bias and sexism.
I welcome the ruling of the Swiss Press Council calling out the gender bias & sexism of Swiss newspaper Aargauer Zeitung for its headline ‘Grandmother becomes boss of WTO’ upon my appointment. It is right to call out sexism, racism or both when you see it! https://t.co/BbUlCuSZKh
— Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (@NOIweala) August 19, 2021
In its ruling on Tuesday, the media regulator said that it had been unable to determine if there was racial bias.
“However … it is obvious that if this had been about a male former finance and foreign minister in a country of 200 million people, the headline ‘A grandfather becomes the WTO director general’ would be inconceivable,” Barron’s news site reported.
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