BBC stars such as Kirsty Wark, Jane Garvey, Louise Minchin and Mishal Husain have called for urgent "solutions" over the gender pay gap after Director-General Tony Hall announced an audit of equal pay.
Lord Hall said the broadcaster was "determined" to tackle the issue, and that the "causes tend to be structural - and societal".
His speech comes two days after he sat down, together with deputy director general Anne Bulford, for a lunch with leading female broadcasters Fiona Bruce, Clare Balding, Mishal Husain, Sarah Montagu, Garvey and Wark to discuss the issue.
A source told the Press Association the conversation was "robust" and "extraordinarily frank", with Lord Hall "taking the criticism".
"At one point some of us began to feel sorry for him", the source said, adding: "At least the BBC is beginning to confront this issue, which should be of concern to every major employer in the country.
"The reports the BBC have commissioned have to be easily understood by everyone impacted by them. How independent they are, we will have to see.
"The intentions are good. But speed is absolutely essential."
The source added: "It's great that the BBC says it wants to be an exemplar on equal pay, but why isn't it already?"
In an address to staff, Lord Hall said its gender pay gap was "primarily about the different balance of men and women at different levels".
"It's based on the whole picture across the organisation - and the causes tend to be structural - and societal," he said.
The BBC Women group said that "solutions" should be in place before the end of the year.
"The Director General must be in no doubt about how serious an issue equal and fair pay is for women across the organisation," they said in a statement posted on Twitter.
"The BBC should be the standard bearer for this.
"We await the swift release of meaningful data that we can trust and for solutions that will rectify injustices to be put in place before the end of the year.
"We need full transparency. Our aim is to change things for women in broadcasting now, and to encourage and reassure young women coming into the industry whatever their role.
"We will be monitoring developments to ensure real change happens, and quickly."
Woman's Hour host Garvey, who organised a letter from some of the BBC's most prominent female stars calling on the Corporation to "act now" on pay, wrote on Twitter: "If I've learnt anything: women need to get together, stick together, speak up for each other. Or nothing will change."
She added: "We're going nowhere."
Broadcaster Wark, BBC Breakfast host Minchin, Today host Husain and sports presenter Clare Balding all posted the statement online.
Balding wrote: "Interesting announcements today. Much work to be done. Thanks to all (including some men) supporting BBC Women."
Broadcasters Victoria Derbyshire, Andrea Catherwood and Sarah Montague also tweeted the statement.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel