A House of Lords committee has urged broadcasters to do more to support women’s careers in the sector, and especially their progression to senior positions.

 

The committee called for greater transparency around broadcasters' recruitment and progression processes and more opportunities for flexible working to support women with caring responsibilities, as well as ensuring appropriate support for women returning from maternity leave.

 

In light of recent cases of gender and age discrimination, the committee also recommended that “urgent steps” should be taken to eradicate any opportunities for gender discrimination and bullying of any kind.

 

The call comes as an inquiry by the committee found that there are not enough women in news and current affairs broadcasting. It singled out the BBC as a public service broadcaster saying it had a special duty to ensure gender representation and equality.

 

Lord Best, committee chairman, said: "Despite the fact that women make up just over half the population, they are under represented, both as staff and as experts, in news and current affairs broadcasting.

 

“And although we recognise the fact that the nature of the sector means that there are additional barriers to women – for example, the fast-paced nature of news which can mean anti-social hours, and freelance work that can make it harder for women with caring responsibilities – the situation is simply not good enough.”

 

He said the issue of gender equality was important because news has such a wide-reaching audience. "[This] means that a special effort must be made by broadcasters – public service broadcasters in particular and especially the BBC because of its special status and its dominance as a provider of news and current affairs,” Lord Best added.

 

The committee also highlighted evidence it had heard suggesting that discrimination against women, particularly older women, still exists in the industry.

 

It criticised the lack of data on the female representation in the sector and questioned why the majority of journalism students are women, but there are so few of them in news and current affairs roles in broadcasting.

 

He added: "We believe that, as well as broadcasters adopting more helpful and flexible practices, Ofcom should play a greater role in this area. The regulator used to play a key part in influencing broadcasters' behaviour in this respect; but the Broadcasting Equalities and Training Regulator (BETR) was disbanded in 2011. We recommend that Ofcom should ensure the collection of all the data needed to monitor progress toward short, medium and long-term targets to ensure a better gender balance.”

 

He said Ofcom should revive the model of a separate entity like the BETR and delegate responsibility for gender equality to it if data was not forthcoming in the next year.

 

Shared from CIPD