After the first Leadership and Media Management Training in Alexandria, Egypt in early April, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) organized its second training in Amman, Jordan, as part of its Women in News (WIN) program.

The effect of the program – with participants in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine – was already visible in the first few days of the course, which brought together journalists and editors from the region for a second time in as many months.

“Before joining the program, I was not aware of the gender bias that we face on a daily basis in the newsroom and we rarely notice how concrete it is,” said Doja Daoud, a WIN participant from Lebanon and journalist at Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

“The first thing that this program helped me realize is that we do not have any women editors at the media organization I work for and I want this to change,” she added.

The training concentrated on skills such as Human Resources Management, Management for Change, Financial Management and other topics. The issues are crucial to WIN’s ambitious goals of seeing more women in leadership roles within the news media industry.

WAN-IFRA’s longtime lead trainer Paula Fray of her South Africa-based frayintermedia led the course, while Jade Dagher, Financial Planning and Business Expansion Specialist from Expand, Lebanon took participants through important financial sessions.

“When you teach women about the finances of an organization, how to read a profit and loss statement, you empower them,” says Fray.

Additionally during the training, participants had the opportunity to listen to female media experts’ and coaches’ experiences in the field and discuss challenges and opportunities in the region.

As the training came to a close, many participants said that WIN had helped them not only learn new skills but how to use those skills to get ahead.

“All the managerial skills we learned during the program were very important, but the main importance of the program remains in helping us find out what skills we need to become leaders,” said Hadeer Hassan Khalil from Egypt’s Mandara Online news. “After this training, I realized how important it is to master foreign languages, especially in this era of globalization.”

Participants in this year’s WIN MENA training program hail from Welad al-Balad, Rose al-Yusuf, Mandara Online, Al-Ahram, Al-Masry Al-Youm, 7iber, Amman net, Al Rai, The Jordan Times, Al-Akhbar, The Daily Star, NOW news, Al-Modon Electronic Newspaper, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, The Lebanese Forces Website, Al-Haya Al-Jadeeda, Pal24 and Al-Iqtissadi.