"Corrupt practices, political financing and institutionalised patriarchal systems have seen the media fail to provide equitable coverage of women’s issues or indeed include women as decision-makers organisationally. Both the audience and media stakeholders are acutely aware of the lack of ethical practice by the media and both are attuned to how this has become gendered in prevailing conditions of economic failure, conflict and weak governance in Iraq. The overall mood was one of pessimism from all stakeholder groups about the current state of and prospects for the media in Iraq. The lack of opportunity in a non-meritocratic society such as Iraq both generates and sustains the prevalence of highly gendered policies and practices across the Iraqi media landscape. This is seen in both stakeholder groups: media stakeholders were likely to disparage their female colleagues; audiences were likely to reject female depictions that they felt were not representative of all Iraqis. Traditional and religious attitudes dominated much of the discussions and many of the challenges facing women and women journalists were attributed to these fixed mind-sets. Again, both stakeholder groups were in agreement that employment rituals and practices were shaped by patriarchal perceptions of a women’s role in traditional societies." (Conclusions)