While Ofcom opens a new front in its battle to bring diversity to the BBC, monitoring class backgrounds and regional accents, poor old Fleet Street is still grinding away at the balances between male and female staff.
Latest intelligence from a new Women in Media survey last week: if you’re a female reporter wanting a front page byline, join the Guardian (where 43% of bylines over a monitored two months were women’s) or the Telegraph (35%) or the FT (35%). Steer well clear of the Mirror (10%), the Sun (15%) and George Osborne’s Evening Standard (15%). Don’t confuse all women with Theresa, George!
As for the balance between men and women in 17 designated executive posts, there’s an underlying current that seems to help explain those front-page results. The Guardian has 67% of women in senior roles, the FT a perfect 50-50% gender split. But down beer-swilling, pun-chasing redtop alley, the Sun boasts a mere 13% of senior women and the Mirror only 20%.
Surveys like this can be frail, of course. The proportion of female page-one hits shrinks with the size of those front pages. Papers in mid-table – say the Mail, with 29% of female execs supporting that Femail legend – have a long, long way to go.
No more pat lectures to the BBC, perhaps. Auntie’s 48% of women on the staff looks a tolerable outcome, until you mention pay.
