• in 1995, the UN Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, China. It was attended by heads of governments and their representatives from 189 countries.
• the recommendations of that conference are contained in the 'Beijing Platform for Action', which sets out twelve major areas of concern, including women and poverty, education, health, power and decision making, violence against women and women and the media.
• the media are covered under Section J of the Beijing Platform, which states that, "everywhere the potential exists for the media to make a far greater contribution to the advancement of women".
• more recently, a number of the concerns highlighted at Beijing, were reinforced by the UN Millennium Summit which set out eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015. These include the goal of promoting gender equality and empowering women.

The aim of this Commonwealth Press Union gender toolkit is to provide journalists with an understanding of gender issues, and of the roles and responsibilities of women and men in society, so that their reporting will be accurate and gender sensitive.

The toolkit is divided into five sections:

• The Gender Agenda
• Women's Inequality - let the facts speak
• In the Public Sphere
• Gender Violence
• Gender Tools for Journalists

Each section contains a brief analysis and explanation and gives pointers to issues that need to be considered. Examples and exercises are also included.

Guidance is given on where to find up to date information and statistics, and links are provided to relevant sites.