Where are all the older women in news and current affairs?

http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2014/oct/26/older-women-news-current-affairs

Version 0 of 1.

When Dorothy Byrne, head of news and current affairs at Channel 4, started out in television, there were lots of other women, she says. Now, aged 62, she wondered aloud on Radio 4’s The Media Show whether “they’re all dead”.

What is going on with women in news and current affairs? At entry level, the genders march in step, but by the time men and women approach retirement age it’s as though the women are all sitting on one side of the seesaw while the men fly sky high. In the last few weeks it has emerged that 70-year-old John Simpson’s contract with the BBC had been extended indefinitely, while 75-year-old David Dimbleby is to anchor the corporation’s election coverage. They are fine broadcasters both but where are all the female septuagenarian reporters and anchors? There are two women involved in the three-way election proposal put forward by the broadcasters this time round; ITN’s Julie Etchingham is 45, and Sky’s 53-year-old Kay Burley will be performing a warm-up and warm-down exercise for Jeremy Paxman on the joint Sky/C4 broadcast.

But is it just an age thing? Something about the way women are expected to continue to look young and glam while men who look like walruses or wizened Gollums somehow gain sagacity and experience? Or is the industry, like so many others, putting up barriers to women and their careers both on screen and off long before they reach the seemingly magical age of 50? And if so, what can be done about it?

In an attempt to find out, the House of Lords select committee on communications has launched an inquiry into women in news and current affairs. Last week, the star-spangled committee headed by Lord Best heard from several academics and industry groups, including Women in Journalism where I led a piece of research that found how much men dominated the front pages as well as expert opinion.

Why? Ahead of the public sessions, the main broadcasters all rushed to stress how balanced their total staff numbers were. According to figures filed by the BBC, which is headed by a man who appears to have appointed more men called James than women to his senior team, women make up 47.5% of the entire news and current affairs division. They also fill 37.3% of leadership positions in network news.

More than half of Channel 4’s total staff - 58% - are women compared with 38% of the total creative media industries, with 44% of its executive management team female. This includes Jay Hunt, the broadcaster’s chief creative officer, who joined the day before Miriam O’Reilly won a successful age discrimination suit relating to a Countryfile revamp she instigated in her previous BBC1 controller job.

Yet, while overall staffing figures may be closer to the 50/50 split of the population as a whole, the number of women at the top and the number we hear and see on air are not. Study after study shows that when news and current affairs producers want to get an expert to speak they are far more likely to find a man to do so. In the content analysis done by WiJ, men made up 84% of all those quoted as experts. Women, on the other hand, were much more likely to be victims of either crime or circumstance.

Expert Women was a training programme set up in response to the lack of women who considered themselves knowledgeable enough to speak publicly about their topic. Since launching in January 2013, it has successfully trained 164 women while “at least two” have gone on to get agents. Nowhere near enough really. Why does any of this matter? It isn’t just that young women growing up “can’t be what they can’t see” in the old campaigning slogan, but the fact that public service broadcasters have a particular responsibility to society. As ITV said in its submission: “Ensuring we reflect social, cultural and gender diversity keeps our programmes relevant and gives them mass appeal.” The committee is not set to hear from any representatives of black, Asian and minority ethnic women and it should.

Several of the committee members asked whether Ofcom, the industry regulator, should get involved. Voluntary measures such as those employed to increase the number of women in non-executive positions lead to slow incremental improvements and no one seems to check when the figures start going backwards.

Next week, culture secretary Sajid Javid is due to give evidence alongside Nicky Morgan, the minister for women and equalities. They should put pressure on broadcasters and by extension the rest of the media industry to fulfil their remit and reflect the society in which we live, one in which men and women or all shapes, sizes and colours have an equal right to an opinion and a voice.