Gender imbalance even worse in shows with multiple presenters and during peak times, according to lobby group Sound Women
Fresh evidence of a gender imbalance in UK radio has been revealed by a survey showing that 20% of shows hosted by a solo presenter involve female broadcasters.
The ratio of women to men on radio declines even further when it comes to shows with multiple presenters, such as the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, where Sarah Montague is the only woman among the five regular hosts, alongside John Humphrys, James Naughtie, Evan Davis and Justin Webb.
Sound Women, a campaigning group lobbying for a better gender balance in radio, found listeners were 10 times more likely to hear male voices than female ones on shows hosted by two or more people.
It also surveyed 20 of Britain's most successful female broadcasters, including Jo Whiley, Clare Balding and Annie Nightingale, and found that none of them had been asked if they would like to co-present with a woman rather than a man.
Asked which female presenter she would like to go on air with, Montague chose the BBC's economics editor, Stephanie Flanders, the presenter of Radio 4's Woman's Hour Jane Garvey, and the former BBC Breakfast host Sian Williams.
Nightingale, the longest-serving Radio 1 DJ, chose Fi Glover as her dream female co-host. She agreed there should be more women on radio but said: "You don't want just want to be there to make up the numbers. You want to be there because you are the best person for the job."
It took Nightingale four years from first applying to getting the job as Radio 1's first female DJ. It took another 12 years before the second, Janice Long, was appointed.
"Once I opened the door, I thought they would all come rushing through – and they didn't. I felt like a token woman for a long time," Nightingale told the Guardian. "I still don't know why. There are many more opportunities for women now, but you are up against some very competitive blokes. You have to be quite a competitive person to get into radio. You have to have broad shoulders and be resilient and to want to keep up with technology."
Observer music critic and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer said: "There are quite a lot of cliches about the older men who come from news backgrounds and women from a softer background to get to radio. It's a constantly re-established cliche that if you are a woman, to get on to radio [news and current affairs] you have to pretend to be 50% male with a slightly hectoring style.
"If more than half the population are women, let's put more women on radio. It's not about their gender, it's also about their experiences – what they have been through in life and their perspective."
Sound Women examined 30 stations across the UK, including the main national ones, counting presenter and co-presenter airtime hours only. Reporters, newsreaders or contributors were not included.
It found that when it came to peaktime radio – breakfast and drivetime – only one in eight presenters were women.
The survey chimes with research by the Guardian last year which found that only 16% of the voices heard on the Today programme – counting both contributors and presenters – are women's.
Earlier this week, James Harding, the incoming BBC head of news and current affairs, told a Women in Journalism seminar he was concerned with the paucity of women over 50 on TV and radio and promised to engage with the issue when he joins the corporation next month. "I'd really like to know why it happens. I think we've got to do something about it."
The BBC said: "The BBC is committed to being an equal opportunities employer with many talented women in high-profile presenting roles across our radio networks. There is always more we can do and we continue to collaborate with Sound Women in addition to running our training, networking and mentoring initiatives to address this industry-wide issue." Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.
Fresh evidence of a gender imbalance in UK radio has been revealed by a survey showing that 20% of shows hosted by a solo presenter involve female broadcasters.
The ratio of women to men on radio declines even further when it comes to shows with multiple presenters, such as the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, where Sarah Montague is the only woman among the five regular hosts, alongside John Humphrys, James Naughtie, Evan Davis and Justin Webb.
Sound Women, a campaigning group lobbying for a better gender balance in radio, found listeners were 10 times more likely to hear male voices than female ones on shows hosted by two or more people.
It also surveyed 20 of Britain's most successful female broadcasters, including Jo Whiley, Clare Balding and Annie Nightingale, and found that none of them had been asked if they would like to co-present with a woman rather than a man.
Asked which female presenter she would like to go on air with, Montague chose the BBC's economics editor, Stephanie Flanders, the presenter of Radio 4's Woman's Hour Jane Garvey, and the former BBC Breakfast host Sian Williams.
Nightingale, the longest-serving Radio 1 DJ, chose Fi Glover as her dream female co-host. She agreed there should be more women on radio but said: "You don't want just want to be there to make up the numbers. You want to be there because you are the best person for the job."
It took Nightingale four years from first applying to getting the job as Radio 1's first female DJ. It took another 12 years before the second, Janice Long, was appointed.
"Once I opened the door, I thought they would all come rushing through – and they didn't. I felt like a token woman for a long time," Nightingale told the Guardian. "I still don't know why. There are many more opportunities for women now, but you are up against some very competitive blokes. You have to be quite a competitive person to get into radio. You have to have broad shoulders and be resilient and to want to keep up with technology."
Observer music critic and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer said: "There are quite a lot of cliches about the older men who come from news backgrounds and women from a softer background to get to radio. It's a constantly re-established cliche that if you are a woman, to get on to radio [news and current affairs] you have to pretend to be 50% male with a slightly hectoring style.
"If more than half the population are women, let's put more women on radio. It's not about their gender, it's also about their experiences – what they have been through in life and their perspective."
Sound Women examined 30 stations across the UK, including the main national ones, counting presenter and co-presenter airtime hours only. Reporters, newsreaders or contributors were not included.
It found that when it came to peaktime radio – breakfast and drivetime – only one in eight presenters were women.
The survey chimes with research by the Guardian last year which found that only 16% of the voices heard on the Today programme – counting both contributors and presenters – are women's.
Earlier this week, James Harding, the incoming BBC head of news and current affairs, told a Women in Journalism seminar he was concerned with the paucity of women over 50 on TV and radio and promised to engage with the issue when he joins the corporation next month. "I'd really like to know why it happens. I think we've got to do something about it."
The BBC said: "The BBC is committed to being an equal opportunities employer with many talented women in high-profile presenting roles across our radio networks. There is always more we can do and we continue to collaborate with Sound Women in addition to running our training, networking and mentoring initiatives to address this industry-wide issue." Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.