Where have all the women gone?
Last night the TV news and current affairs establishment was on parade at London’s Hilton Hotel. The “brightest and the best” gathered in the shadow of Marie Colvin’s death for the Royal Television Society’s awards ceremony. She was very present in the room, many of us haunted by the reality that ‘there but for the grace of god, could we have gone’. Few of us could ever have matched her courage, but chance is an indiscriminate godfather, when it comes to death in the field of conflict.
When I gaze across our newsroom, I see a reasonable cross-section of the society in which I live. Our “product” is as dependent upon male staff as it is upon female. The burden of hard graft is carried at least as much by women as men – it may be thinner the higher up the managerial food change you look, but where the work gets done there is pretty even burden sharing.
To see the stage at last night’s RTS Awards presented a very different picture. Of roughly a dozen categories in which there was effectively a “team award”, no fewer than five of the winning teams managed to sport a winning tableau entirely made up of white men.
UTV and BBC Panorama were noteworthy in their failure to find a single woman who had made any contribution to their accolade. On five separate occasions, there appeared no self-consciousness that there were no women on the stage. The team from Calendar -Yorkshire TV’s evening news programme - nicely reflected a more mixed reality – both men and women were recognised in their win. It was also good on such a night to see Sky’s Alex Crawford recognised again for her reporting. And great to see male anchors knocked off their perches by Anna Botting, also of Sky, who won presenter of the year. But alas, these worthy swallows do not a spring make.
Forget any spring; when I looked around the vast room in which perhaps 800 were gathered, you’ve got it – far more men than women; and very few ethnic minorities.
If the RTS event last night represented a genuine reflection of television news and current affairs in the UK today, it is a worrying story. The standards were high, but the relationship to the makeup of 21st Century Britain was woefully out of line.
I’m not one for quotas, but it is hard to escape the conclusion that our industry is anachronistically male dominated, and if our job is to reflect the world we live in, then those making the decisions about what ends up on our screens do not reflect the make up of that world.
I should mention the very best moment in all this. When Al Jazeera English won the second of their richly deserved Awards, this Arab-funded Channel, swamped the stage with women managers and workers – SIX women, and just THREE men!
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Read more: RTS television awards hat-trick for Channel 4 News
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There are 26 comments on this post
As someone who was a news producer with Sky News until recently I have first hand experience of what it’s like to be a woman in television news.
As I hit 30 and got married I thought to myself, do I really want to do this job with children? How can you work overnight shifts and find a baby sitter? Even more so if you’re one of the lucky producers who gets to travel. How can I put in 9-10 hours at work with no break and running around like a mad thing to then go home and do the same thing for the rest of the day?
I just didn’t think it was a feesible or happy lifestyle. There are some women who do it and I think they’re amazing. Maybe when I have children I’ll realise it is possible, but for now I have more of a 9-5 gig and am enjoying life outside of work for the first time in 3 years.
I think this dilemma about work/life balance might go some way to explaining a lack of women in television news. I feel I’ve let down the sisterhood by bowing out early, but life has to be about more than just work and I wonder if journalism demands too much of life for mothers.
I totally understand where you’re coming from here, but just wanted to say – there ARE fathers, too.
How do fathers in this field of work manage? If they can have their wives/partners taking care of the children during evening/night shifts, what’s to say it can’t work the other way round?
Maybe it is because I am Swedish and used to fairly equal opportunities for parents, but surely it shouldn’t just be up to the mother to take responsibility for the children? Part from breast-feeding, there is not an awful lot a woman can do that a man can’t.
I know… this is the UK – different background, different culture etc. However, that is no excuse, in my view. Parents should still be able to share their workload and achieve a decent life/work balance.
Jon,
Nobody wants quotas, since all appointments should be made on ability alone. But sadly they aren’t.
Mainstream media is no more immune to “who you know” rather than “what you know” than any other occupation. In fact in many ways it is a good deal worse. Small wonder then it is riddled with neocon males. You need only look at the Murdochs’ record, tokenism apart. You couldn’t, for instance, imagine a Paul Foot or a John Pilger working for Rupert and his neocon Mafia on, say, Fox News, or for ITV or BBC News. Ultra right propaganda and lies are too important.
In fact a quota is ALREADY in operation. It is male, white and establishment oriented.
In the end quotas are necessary until the situation evens up and media are free of neocon ownership and editorial control.
But don’t hold your breath.
I was thinking the same thing when reading through the list of nominees. (That’s as close yours truly got to the RTS action…) Well done to all of your team, by the way.
I am especially delighted that one of your finest camera people got the prize. Stuart Webb really deserved that one. As for yourself… well, we all know you are the best news anchor anyway – main thing!
Good post, Jon – a good portion of food for thought.
As you, I am not one for quotas either. I would prefer the situation to change because of people becoming aware of how wrong this is. That’s in an ideal world…
However, I am beginning to wonder how many generations this will actually take. Will I see it? My daughter? Hopes were up high in the 60s and 70s but then we seem to have taken quite a few, high-heeled steps back.
I am in no way calling for increased wonderbra-burning, merely for the 50% (or thereabouts) of the population to be on the same level as the other 50%.
Instead, we are treated as if we were in the same percentage league as ‘ethnic minorities’, Monster Lunatic Raving Parties and the like. This has to stop. Why should we have to take this?
Might also wonder why the BBC pay the presenters of Match of the Day £2.5 million a year out of public funds for a show that grosses 4.5 million viewers, and pays the presenters of Rip off Britain, with an audience figure of 5 million, around £20,000 annually? Why is so much of the public broadcast purse going to a show that is mainly for male audiences whereas a higher ranking show’s presenters get pin money in comparison. Another example of Rip Off Britain? Jobs for the boys, presided over by more boys.
About 10 years ago , when the witch hunt for bringing women down began, a common little echo was lets bring that little bird down from her perch or she’s a single parent,her husaband left her , there must be something wrong with HER lets bring her down or, why should she have more money than a man.
I would ask these ‘gentle’ men to rethink now many of them have daughters.’
Hello Jon,
I hope you are well. In my experience, women at work tend to be the doers: they do the things that need to be done to get the job (whatever it is) done, and they don’t much care whom takes credit for it. The reason why there are far fewer women the higher up the managerial food-chain you go, is quite simple. Women get to a level at work where they fast realise that management is nothing more than a series of testosterone and biscuit-fuelled, rather dull meetings about the same uncompleted work that was discussed at umpteen previous meetings, the outcome of which, achieves diddly-squat, and decides nothing, other than the date of the next meeting. Well done boys.
Laters
Rachel
Completely brilliant, and accurate!
Rachel – You go, girl! As they say in the US. I worked over there for 10 years and found the working environment amazingly non-sexist by comparison (three cheers for the positive outcome of much litigation). Here we are expected to put up with a great deal of overt sexism and be ‘good sports’ about it and this accepted practice leads to two things, one, a fair amount of intimidation in the workplace, you just don’t want to speak up or stick your head above the parapet, and two, a tacit acceptance of covert discrimination in advancement.
This being so, most sane women eventually come to the conclusion you have – it’s not worth the fight to get ahead, we don’t care about our status amongst the alpha males and we don’t like the interminable meetings which get in the way of actually doing the work.
I recommend you get yourself a secondment to California and perpare to be amazed!
‘Testosterone and biscuit-fuelled’ – best one-liner heard in yonks (have twtittered)!
More soberly – delighted to see so many Jon and other Snowbloggers against quotas.
Hi Jon,
Lip service is paid (particularly at the BBC) to equality but the reality is that it is doubly hard, no – make that ten times as hard – for a female journalist to reach the heights. And if she is working class, or not quite classically beautiful, or has family responsibilities or a disability (or worst of all, is over 45) then it is nigh impossible. For every Lindsey Hilsum or Marie Colvin or Lyse Doucet there are hundreds who aspired but were crushed. We end up as ‘rota fodder’, using about 1/100th of our skills and talents, editing other peoples’ reports and scripts, watching grimly as PR puffs about celebs outweigh the war reports.
Non-story. Women make up more than 40% of the NUJ, which is more or less the same as the proportion of women in the total workforce.
Perhaps Jon should think about whether TV news is really the pinnacle of journalism that all women aspire to? Or is it just that women need more than 90 seconds to feel satisfied…?
I have been delighted with the constant use of women as guests on C4 news, as well as presenters and reporters. Even better, those who work on the programme are not even all blonde! A mixture of beautiful skin shades, and hairstyles, many of them even Short Hair! Your management team knows how to get the best, in terms of brains and ability and outshines all the other channels in this respect. Well done, you lot. Keep at it, please.
Agreed, Tanya. What’s so appealing about C4News is that every one of the team is there because they are excellent at the job. Apparently some of them are women, I’m told some are even of non-pink skin tones and some could even be gay or over 50, but I never notice those facets – I just see good, solid, human reporting professionals, doing the job without the baggage of their gender, ethnicity or orientation.
With some other broadcasters, you can smell the tokenism in the air – doesn’t matter if they’re any good, put them on because they help to fill the virtual quota boxes.
Quotas lead to tokens – go on ability, like C4, and the whole issue vanishes, as it should.
Good post, Jon! You were in the States when Affirmative Action (AA) was in full swing, I do believe. And I didn’t used to believe in AA or quotas at all, until I did some research and had practical experience with AA beneficiaries. It IS an artificial way to push people ahead. And it DOES create disparities – one white man took his case to court and won based on reverse discrimination (he was white and lost out to a black person) and it was a landmark case. However, AA had a good side: the people who ‘won out’ based on race or gender were usually only FRACTIONS of points behind the people who lost out. Also, through the years research has found that they tended to remain in the career, worked very hard to maintain their place (“We must be better than everyone else” because non-minority people sometimes waited for them to fail) and had a very strong social conscience in greater proportions than those who were not helped by AA. Does this mean that forcing a quota system is fair? Probably not. All I know is that I have been taught by such, worked with such and have found them not wanting at all (except in one case and yes, he was the opponents’ of AA worst nightmare). (I’m white, btw)
Well John, what are you going to do about it? The problem has long been outed, but the time for words is done. Shall I quote My Fair Lady: “Words words words/I’m so sick of words/I get words all day through, first from him then from you/Is that all you blighters can do?” (She means from men, of course.)
I’m not a fan of the quotas idea, but we need action. Maybe some campaigning, using your public profile, your clout, your ability to compose a strong argument and gather good evidence? Could you make some TV programmes about it? Perhaps pose a few ideas that don’t pitch genders against each other but that can see them work differently, but complementing each other? What can YOU do? I reckon a lot.
If you’re going to thrust the ball back in Jon’s face (and use Snowblog to link to your own), then do spell his name correctly!
I’m all for campaigning but there’s a risk of confusing the medium with the message here. Broadcast news will sooner rather than later have to adapt to gender-neutrality as the world in which it operates continues to change. Not for much longer can it survive in its self-imposed isolation looking down from its Olympian heights. Social media, particularly the Twittersphere, is changing all of that.
My mother was an award winning journalist, and I worked in PR for 25 years. I gave it up when I got pregnant twice and twice had my work load doubled and my team cut in half leading to two miscarriages. I started my own company to be able to combine work and parenting but my daughter’s father will not pull his weight in equal parenting, to the point of hitting me to get his world view on top. 1 in 3 women suffer sexist violence in the home with a third of that commencing when a woman gets pregnant. 1 in 3 girls suffer sexist attacks at school from their male peers. That is the face of equality in the UK and that, in my opinion, is largely what holds girls back. If you don’t shut up and put up with being second class citizens, whether on line or in the board room, sometime soon some bloke is going to put you in what they consider your place, first verbally and if necessary physically. The rise of laddism has made bullying a national sport, and we all know what lads mags think of women.
I’m all for female ninjas (like Rach) in workplace. It brings a healthy working dynamic to whatever office they’re networked at. These woman are more socially adept and rational – that’s for sure.
Gosh! I don’t think I’ve been referred to as a ninja before, Bob. Thanks for that.
The mistake most people make, (men and women), in the workplace (especially the office) is that they think that you have to like people and be liked by them to be able to work with them. Not true. As soon as you start talking about what you did at the weekend or what you thought of Coronation Street last night, you can kiss goodbye to any real advancement in the workplace.
To be successful, if getting to the top, is what you regard as success, then you have to remain aloof- don’t get involved with people at work, get involved with work at work.
Laters
Rachel.
I am saddened by the post from Derrington. She has my deep sympathy; I certainly recognise the features of female existence that she is talking about. I guess that all women have to do their best to fight against being bullied and sexually harrassed, and always support each other, rather than competing viciously in the style of men. I tend to view my not very impressive career as very much the product of my own unwillingness to suck up to men. However, Derrington, I’m sure you know that there are feminist men and genuinely kind men out there, as well, who would never mistreat colleagues or their partners, and who are aware of the situation. I think, part of the current problems for women are due to the pornification of social mores, and the abysmal lack of motivation offered to young women by schools. But my own robust feminism was rejected by my fellow school teachers and the success that my energy and commitment towards young women and young men in schools produced was actually feared by my teacher colleagues.
I don’t know what the answer is and I fear for my granddaughters. But for every intelligent face that appears on C4, of any class, gender or ethnicity, I feel gratitude.
Thanks Tanya, but in the end I and other women don’t want sympathy, we want people to start getting angry at this viscious discrimination. Sexist bullies are all over the media and Government whilst most of the ‘good’ people look the other way or say, well not all men are like that. I know they’re not Tanya, but the majority of men are buying into this culture, and sneering at the women brave enough to call a spade a spade. 98% of guys aged 14-30 regularly view on line porn which refers to women as b****es and wh***res and a lot worse, portrays rape and incest as ‘entertaining and enjoyable for the victim’, you have a Prime Minister that openly sneers at female colleagues whilst the rest of the male MPs openly titter at his Calm Down Dear ‘jest’- I wonder how many people would titter if he put on a pseudo caribbean voice to address Diane Abbott? Dom violence is actually sexist violence, and 120+ women die from it every year – and still people titter at sexism in a way they don’t at racism. Are women less human than black or Asian men that we don’t feel as fearful of attack as they do when confronted by racists? The time for forming a defensive laager around sexism is over.
Parallels can be drawn between sexism, racism & disability discrimination as well as social economic oppression. These are determined by the media as it constructs our social reality. Of course religion and social demographics also play a huge part in this argument. Surprisingly you could probably find male discrimination in certain roles today. For instance: child care, fashion, sections of the arts & the textile industries. This is a class thing, but don’t forget the concept of the ‘Monstrous Feminine’ . The powerful sociopaths and psychopaths among us. Stereotypes are rarely close to the truth but it has to be noted that there are some very powerful predatory woman out there who have their men tortured. This, like the taboo of male rape is something very rarely considered, or recognised by mainstream society. In opposite context the seedy world of pornography idolises and empowers those woman who are prepared to play the game of gender politics to their advantage. Pornography is generally consumed more by males who are social victims or ‘don’t quite fit in’ however the decent distinction between fantasy and social reality is a line the more civilised of us do not cross.
Bob, I think you are hopelessly outdated. Sexism is not a class thing, discrimination in child care is largely for a very good reason, the vast majority of paedophiles are men. The Monstrous Feminine concept is not something I am familiar with, but would suspect it might well be a construct, like witches, invented to justify the way male culture views women in order to justify male cruelty to women. In the last 20 years, the UN and WHO has estimated that 120 million women are missing from the world’s population through femicide – gender related abortions, abandoned female babies, starved female babies, and on and on. The average age of girls being entered into the sex industry, of which pornography is part, in the UK is 13 – and the fastest growing crime industry is the slave trade, except this time its not black people being bought and sold to work in plantations, its largely women and children being traded to work in the sex industry. Your social ‘victims’ are the demand side of the equation, or to compare them to the old slavery model, they are the commissioners of the slavers. The more civilised of us, if that’s what we are, need to cease the denial and start fighting bac
All my life I have worked in a female dominated profession.To be honest there is little between the men and the women when in power ; in fact the females in position I have met tend to be more corrupt and use sexual prowess to get them what and where they want. Megalomania is the buzz to all males and females looking for a place in the scripts.
I think Jon has rose tinted specs on when he talks about women, but then we know Jon , he tends to fish( IN THE NEWS SENSE) then when he thinks he has a catch he will u turn or parallel. Women do that too.
Well Margaret, you’ve had a very lucky break to have met men that are LESS corrupt than women. Women may use sexual allure, but I’d rather that than faced a bloke using intimidation and violence. But maybe I’m just weird like that!