BROADCASTERS must address the position of women across TV, not just on panel shows, presenter Mary Beard has said.

Danny Cohen, the BBC's director of television, has vowed to end all-male panel shows, saying that the absence of female guests was "not acceptable".

Professor Beard, 59, said she gave "two hearty cheers" to Cohen's promise but she added: "It's not just about panel shows."

She criticised the "niche roles for women in sitcoms" and females being placed "next to the main (male) presenter on the breakfast TV sofa".

Professor Beard said that the "underlying 'maleness' of all these shows" was "more hard-wired in our culture than the presence of a few extra women is likely to solve".

She praised the likes of former BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders and Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis.

But she said: "There are still relatively few and they tend to be young and conventionally pretty (their looks, perhaps, sugaring the pill of hard-core political debate).

"And there can be an outcry when women move into what are perceived as traditional male areas. Remember the abuse directed at Jacqui Oatley when she dared to 'leave the netball court' and become the first woman commentator on Match of the Day."

While quotas could "help in the short term", the presenter said that she dreaded "any idea of a fixed quota of women per programme", saying: "It's likely to leave producers ringing round all the women they can possibly think of to fill 'the woman's slot'."