IT HAS not been a great year for the BBC in terms of gender equality. The issue of equal pay, in particular, has dogged the corporation, with a litany of senior female journalists and presenters revealing shocking disparities between themselves male colleagues.
But inequality is a far wider issue than pay, and gender discrimination goes far deeper. That’s why news that the BBC is taking action to achieve a 50:50 split in expert contributions across its programming should be welcomed as a step in the right direction.
I should admit I have a vested interest in this, both as someone invited to be a commentator, and in my capacity as a committee member of Women in Journalism Scotland (WiJ), an organisation created to amplify female voices across the media landscape.
READ MORE: BBC vows to make the news more female
The need for action is clear. You can still switch on the TV or radio, or open a newspaper, and be confronted by a “manel” – an all-male panel or group of contributors – particularly when the topic for discussion is politics, economics, science or technology.
Is this because there aren’t any women capable of giving an expert view? Of course not. The reasons men end up being viewed as experts are many and complex. Historically, since it was men who worked in these spheres, society became conditioned to thinking specialists had to male. Journalists and broadcasters hold lists of experts and they can be lazy – why bother finding someone new when you’ve got a perfectly reliable, if not necessarily knowledgeable, male contributor?
Then, as WiJ has explored with its membership, there are the barriers women create for themselves. Many say “no” to invitations to appear on television or radio because they don’t see themselves as experts or have the confidence to speak in public. Often, they recommend male colleagues with less specialist knowledge.
Women also often find themselves scrutinised with far greater ferocity than men when they appear in public, and are far more likely to receive abuse on social media, often about their looks or what they’re wearing as well as what they say. Unsurprisingly, this puts many off.
WiJ has been working to give women the confidence to air their expertise, and we recently worked with BBC Scotland on its Expert Women training initiative, which is already seeing progress with increased female representation across television, radio and online in terms of the number and breadth of women providing contributions.
Their expert knowledge and experience, not least in science and technology, is already helping viewers and listeners understand complex issues.
READ MORE: BBC vows to make the news more female
It is also making editors think differently about how they recruit experts, and that’s hugely important going forward.
It’s not just the BBC that needs to tackle inequality, of course. All media outlets must, and hopefully will, follow their lead on striving for equality in contributors. For until it is as normal to see a woman discuss astrophysics on the telly as a man, until “manels” are a thing of the past, there is work to be done.
Marianne Taylor is a committee member of Women in Journalism Scotland.
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