Gender trouble at the BBC
Gender trouble at the BBC
The BBC’s gender pay gap has been in the news. Having the list of BBC salary’s made public and what it pays it male and female stars has been interesting. Of the 96 staff on the list, 34 are women and none of them earn over £500,000. And there is a disparity between the two presenters of the same show – The One Show. Matt Baker earns much more than his female co-presenter Alex Jones – why is this?
Lots of raised eyebrows over at MoI HQ on this one. What qualities make a top talent for the BBC? Are men better at presenting than women? The BBC’s motto is ‘To educate, to inform and entertain’ which can be performed by men and women equally surely.
Director General, Lord hall has vowed to close the gender pay gap by 2020 and we’ll be keeping an eye on how this institutional sexism will change. We cannot just accept that men will be paid more than women. Despite the Equal Pay Act being 47 years old (legislated since 1970), women still earn less than men in Britain today.
Female stars at the BBC are prepared to revolt over the gender pay gap, apparently. What about the men? Anyone willing to take a pay cut, so there’s more money to pay all staff fairly? BBC must be at the forefront of change on equal pay and not just for ‘top’ stars, but all staff, including production, engineering and support roles. The people making the content should be paid the best rates to get the maximum from them, regardless of gender.
