Table of Contents
Now I’m going to write something I never imagined I’d think, let alone express in public: too many women are being hired to present iconic sports programs on the BBC.
Two women and just one man are rumored to take the place of the outgoing Gary Lineker on Match of the Day, and on Tuesday a trio of women presented the BBC Sports Personality of the Year (Keely Hodgkinson was the fourth woman in a row to win). .
My reaction surprised me. After all, I started my career in BBC broadcasting in 1973 and spent most of it campaigning for women’s voices to be heard.
It was virtually impossible to imagine a woman reading BBC news until Angela Rippon broke that barrier in 1975.
But at that moment it was like the BBC management patted itself on the back and thought, ‘We’ve done it.’ That’s enough. A woman at the helm will be enough,” because the next advance was several years away.
My first encounter with sexism in the industry came in 1971, when I was still at university and desperate to join the BBC. I had the voice. He was a good writer and knew how to act. Most importantly, he was obsessed with news, politics, and had a nose for a good story.
The careers adviser told me not to bother because they would only take two or three apprentices, they would be men and they would have first class degrees from Oxford or Cambridge. A girl from Hull University didn’t stand a chance, no matter how good my degree was.
Gabby Logan, Alex Scott and Clare Balding presented this week’s Sports Personality of the Year, which was won by athlete Keely Hodgkinson, the fourth consecutive woman to lift the award.
Mark Chapman will join Kelly Cates, the daughter of Liverpool legend Sir Kenny Dalglish, and Gabby Logan as the new hosts of Match Of The Day in place of Gary Lineker.
I was so determined to get in that I managed to apply to BBC Radio Bristol and get a job. It was the most humble position in the editorial office: that of copyist. He had to type up the stories that came in by telephone or teletype and give them to journalists.
I crawled up the ladder and became co-host (along with a man) of the morning magazine show.
From that moment on, I committed to making it my life’s work to ensure that women were always represented. The message took a long time to arrive.
In 1983, I was hired as a presenter/reporter on Newsnight, then the toughest and most respected current affairs program in the country. The presenting team was all-male, except for me and Irish presenter Olivia O’Leary.
She and I were never hired to host the show together. We were always on duty with one of the men, we were never given big interviews and we were known throughout the BBC as “the Newsnight wives”. It was infuriating and insulting.
From Newsnight I joined the Today program on Radio 4. Once again I would be joint presenter with one of the men: Brian Redhead or John Timpson. They always made me feel secondary to them.
Only when I arrived at Woman’s Hour in 1987 did I feel that I was respected for my journalism, my interviewing and presenting skills, and that I was no longer compared unfavorably to a man because of my sex.
It was on Woman’s Hour where I was able to demonstrate that a woman was perfectly capable of facing the most difficult political interviews. I was also able to promote my idea that women should be paid as much as men for doing the same work and should never be considered inferior to men.
Little by little, over the years, my voice and those of other women fighting for equal opportunities were heard: more women were hired to present the news and the shocking pay gap was reduced. I left Woman’s Hour in 2020 after 33 years thinking: “job done.”
So I really should be celebrating the latest female appointments. Instead, on Tuesday night I found myself thinking, “That’s not right.” Three women, Gabby Logan, Clare Balding and Alex Scott, presented the sports personality of the year.
Each is a brilliant presenter and has a deep knowledge of a variety of sports, but somehow the gender balance didn’t seem right. Sport is for everyone, men and women. The presentation team needed a man.
Even more worrying is the lineup that will feature the new Match of the Day. Two women and one man for that Saturday night football festival? What’s the point of that?
Yes, Kelly Cates, daughter of legendary Liverpool striker Sir Kenny Dalglish, and Gabby Logan, whose father is former Leeds United player Terry Yorath, know as much about football as any man, but I suspect the only male co-presenter, Mark Chapman, You may feel like an odd man out, working alongside two such powerful women.
Surely a program should reflect its audience and, given that women make up only 30 per cent of those who watch Premier League matches on television, a better presenter ratio would be two men to one woman.
I spent nearly five decades working at the BBC, but I never understood the mindset of the Corporation’s senior management: how they choose which faces will be seen and which voices will be heard. It often feels like a diversity box-ticking exercise, rather than an effort to showcase top talent.
When I spent my entire life fighting for better opportunities for women, I wanted to see equal representation. I fear for the response of men’s soccer fans to the “two women, one man” lineup for match of the day.
There is still a lot to do on equal opportunities and it would be a great shame if this provoked a backlash that pushed women back to where many men still feel we belong.
Yes, you CAN have it all, Fearne.
Radio 2 DJ Fearne Cotton announced she had broken up with her husband of ten years, Jesse Wood, days after revealing she had discovered two tumors in her jaw.
Poor Fearne Cotton got herself into trouble because of what she describes as “the toxic pressure that one woman can have it all.”
I’m sorry the presenter is having a hard time. Her marriage has broken down, she is responsible for her two children and she has recently had a health problem, but it should not scare young women who hope to have it all.
Men and women can have jobs and children as long as they do it together. Men must step up and do their part.
Boo whistle for the anti-Santa vicar
What was the Reverend Dr. Paul Chamberlain thinking when he told a class of ten and eleven year olds, “You’re all sixth graders, let’s face it, Santa isn’t real”?
I’m surprised that one of the shocked parents whose son’s Christmas had been ruined didn’t have a word with the vicar. ‘Hi Rev, that whole Holy Spirit thing. Are you sure that everything you believe is real?
Chris owes me a casserole!
Dianne Buswell and Chris McCausland lifted this year’s Strictly Come Dancing glitterball
Saturday night and the Strictly finale. I made my favorite meal, chicken barley soup, and let it simmer on the stove.
When the winners were announced, a pungent smell emerged from the kitchen. Thank you, Chris McCausland, for burning my soup and leaving a casserole that will never be recovered.
My dogs and I didn’t eat dinner, but I wouldn’t have missed a minute of your triumph.
As the investigation into the Post Office disaster draws to a close, former chief executive Paula Vennells continues to insist: “No one told me about Horizon.” Does woman not know shame?
Didn’t a boss with a huge salary wonder why honest bosses and postal ladies were accused of theft, prosecuted and ruined, and their lives ruined? If he really was that ignorant, his utter incompetence had to be punished.