Broadcasting's gender imbalance is inexcusable after Expert Women's Day

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jan/21/expert-women-day-gender

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How long have you got before someone makes up their mind about you? In face-to-face conversation, it's four minutes; on TV, you've got just 10 seconds.

The harsh realities of life in front of the camera, plus top tips and trade secrets were shared with 30 women at the first pan-industry event of its kind last week.

Expert Women's Day, hosted by the BBC Academy in conjunction with Broadcast magazine, was the culmination of our campaign to tackle the gender imbalance on-screen and on-air in news and factual programming.

While broadcasters have acknowledged the disparity, they have failed to take any real practical steps towards addressing it, until now.

About 65 industry professionals spanning broadcasters, independent producers and agents took part in masterclasses and networking – recognition joint action was needed to speed up the process of achieving gender parity, which, if left to natural forces, would take decades.

The BBC's support is particularly significant, given its previous dismissal of practical initiatives such as "social engineering". And this was despite its flagship BBC1 News at Ten recording a 9:1 male/female expert ratio on several occasions, according to our figures, and with the Today programme proving a consistently poor performer.

The event was also vital in that it tackled head on two key problems identified by broadcasters; firstly, the difficulty of finding expert women in traditionally male-dominated fields. Several industry figures welcomed the event for providing a short cut in the laborious, expensive, and as one producer put it "hit and miss" process of finding female talent in areas such as science, engineering, technology and business.

The fact that more than half of the 2,000 women applying for the day came from those areas proves that, with the right effort, they can be found.

The second problem is that even when they do identify expert women, broadcasters across the board say women are far more likely to turn them down, often due to lack of confidence and training.

One of the most striking facts about Expert Women's Day was the number of those admitting to so-called imposter syndrome and questioning whether they were "expert enough" to warrant a place. This is despite the fact that while some jokingly referred to it as the "Xpert Factor", the event was more like a science symposium than an audition for TV wannabes.

Here were cosmochemists, nanoscientists and maritime archaeologists, women who, between them, had more double firsts, PhDs and awards than Simon Cowell has had No 1 hits.

So one of the greatest achievements of the day was in convincing them of their talents. "The biggest revelation is that we're not imposters," said Renaissance historian, Dr Rowan Tomlinson, definitely someone you can imagine having her own series, although she'd prefer to "hold a spear than don a bonnet".

Professor Frances Ashcroft, who helped discover a pioneering treatment for diabetes, added: "Not until I'd published 100 papers did I feel like a scientist. What I've learnt from today is that many people feel like that.

"But it doesn't matter, we just have to do those media appearances anyway."

And it turns out that the experience is mutually beneficial. Several of the academics referred to how impact was now a key factor in deciding whether to award fellowship funding.

Of course, making the complex accessible is a fine art, but the day proved the women shared not only intellectual prowess, but a natural talent for communicating with passion and clarity. "Your success as a presenter is in direct proportion to your ability to be yourself," said one of the TV execs.

No one was phased by the camera, and no one played up to it. The directors and producers who saw them in action concluded that all the women, without exception, could be on-air tomorrow. Neither they, nor the broadcasters, have any more excuses.

<strong><em>Lisa Campbell is editor of </em></strong><strong><em>Broadcast magazine</em></strong>