Wading through some 1960s election coverage (yes, I should get out more) I was taken aback by a comment from the presenter Cliff Michelmore as he passed onto a colleague: “The girls are much prettier than last time.” He was referring to the typists. The main role of women on these election programmes was to type out the results. Tappy tap tap they went in the background; but theirs was not to speak because it all had to be interpreted by important people – funnily enough all men.
By the 1970s “girls” were actually allowed to say things! Sue Lawley and Esther Rantzen appear amongst the Bobs, Robins and Butlers and they are even allowed to point to maps and proffer some analysis. Though, of course, they are never allowed near the swingometer. As is often remarked, Dimblebys and Paxos are allowed to get old in their roles but if anyone suggested that a 74 year old Rantzen or a 68 year old Lawley front mainstream election coverage they would be a laughing stock.
Even in 2010 not a single woman fronted one of the national debates and just one will do so this time. Generally though the situation on national television is much better – with Wark, Newman, Maitlis, Stratton and a few superb women from ethnic minorities such as Anuskha Asthana and Afua Hirsch coming through.
Sadly though the position on regional TV is not great. Male presenters can go on forever but not women. Take the regional edition of the Sunday Politics. While the national and daily versions have a credible history of female presenters and pundits, at regional level only 3 local versions of the programme (out of 14 versions broadcast last Sunday) were presented by women and just one was presented by someone from a visible ethnic minority.
This week a female black teenager brought the PM to a rare standstill with a question on the tampon tax. Let’s hope as the opening credits roll for Election 2025 someone like her will be the seasoned presenter at the helm.
* Ruth Bright has been a councillor in Southwark and Parliamentary Candidate for Hampshire East
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15 Comments
Ruth, it is good to see you writing on here and to hear from a fellow political junkie. Your article is also stimulating.
I like to make constructive criticism. I find that the difference between someone who will have a tough time in politics and someone who will find it quite easy can be someone who tiresomely deals with the concerns of everyone. It can be repetitive, but someone who reassures, rather than worries, has a good chance of going a long way.
Best of luck and women campaigning against sexism has certainly changed my behaviour, even if I’ll most probably always argue against absolutism.
Hear, hear.
I got mocked by friends, and deservedly so, for getting engrossed by the 1992 UK election coverage on YouTube a few months back. You don’t have to go all the way back to the 1960s to be transported into a different televisual (and parliamentary) era….
It would be good to get more female commenters on Lib Dem Voice.
The majority are male, as are Lib Dem MPs.
Any info on how many members are female ?
Thanks Eddie.
PBBrown agreed the ratio is terrible but I suspect we do rather better for female councillors.
David Faggiani let’s hope there are some support groups for people who get addicted to this archive coverage! I am sure we wouldn’t be the only attendees. Alas for me the coverage from 1992 is too familiar to feel that dated!
Ruth — If God had intended women to present Election Coverage on the TV — he would have called them Dimble -Bee.
I suppose that just because the BBC General Election coverage for more than fifty years has involved a Dimble-Bee you will be suggesting that the BBC has a strange equal opportunities policy.
A reasonable person might assume that the BBC does not have an equal opportunities policy at all.
I obviously would like to see a better male-female balance. A better public school – state school balance would also be good.
One should not be achieved at the expense of the other.
Fair enough Stephen but I don’t think it’s as stark as female-male balance being achieved at the expense of public school – state school balance. In any case “privileged” women who take their place in the media still face barriers to success like the challenge of balancing work, maternity leave and bringing up young children.
Ruth Bright 5th Feb ’15 – 8:42am
The need for more women presenters on TV and maybe also some people from state schools?
As you mentioned Esther Rantzen in your article I thought it might provide some context to mention her daughter Rebecca Wilcox who at 37 has had quite a good start to her career in broadcasting.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=rebecca+wilcox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari
It may of course be that she is amazingly talented and far superior in her TV skills to anyone of the 93% of the population who attended state schools.
My theory is that because her parents were both BBC royalty she maybe did not face quite so many barriers in her early career.
I think that Esther’s dad also worked for the BBC. So perhaps it is just in the DNA.
I usually agree with you, Ruth, but I find it hard to believe that these “…privileged women … in the media still face barriers to success like the challenge of balancing work, maternity leave and bringing up young children.”
I think their careers were several rungs up the ladder of success before they were even born.
– they could free-up a space or two by getting rid of that awful bully Andrew Neil and his puerile humour. Allegra Stratton would do a much better job.
you can spot who the public school ones are, they are the only people who use that posh word ‘extraordinary’.
Peter Tyzack
You mention Allegra Stratton. Her school ? Latymer Upper.
Fees (from September 2014): Upper School £5,770 per term
Plus—-Lunches: £4.14 per day payable termly in advance; Music Tuition Fee £266 per term; Musical Instrument Hire £33 per term. There are also Other optional charges:
@John Tilley
‘I think that Esther’s dad also worked for the BBC.’
He did; he was a top engineer in Lines Dept, which was responsible for ensuring communications between studio centres and between them and transmitters. A lot on the lines concerned would have been hired or leased from the Post Office.
Peter Dimmock was another second generation BBC person. His father was also an engineer.
About the time Esther’s career in front of the camera took off, she and her line manager became an item. As BBC staff rules forbade family members working together, they decide that he should resign.
In TV newsreading, Angela Rippon is often quoted as the first woman. But I remember, in the 1950s, Doreen Pownall reading the BBC Northern Ireland news. It was so unprecedented that I called for my mother to come and see.
I don’t know if Doreen Pownall did it often again.
I desperately want us to avoid going round in our usual circles about this gender/class, class/gender thing. Sorry to tease you John but Before I wrote this piece I was thinking of fashioning another entitled: “John Tilley is right”! Because, like you I did a bit of research on my favourite female presenters and was disheartened to see how many came from “posh” schools, had it easy backgrounds or even a seemingly hereditary broadcasting background. You are right. Dead right.
However we can only apply our own experience to these things. My own experience is that I can only identify two bits of indirect discrimination I have experienced as a result of being the ninth child of a bricklayer (one relating to a school trip and one relating to a piece of career advice). These were irritating but hardly life changing! No-one has ever whistled at me or shouted at me in the street for having working class roots!
Until I had my kids I never experienced a glass ceiling in the party. Motherhood derails many a career and I for one have found it very inspiring to see women with similar family (if not financial) circumstances to mine become successful.
Some role models can be posh as long as it isn’t ALL of them! Sorry if this is a bit disjointed – trying to get the kids to bed at the same time as writing!
postscript Julie Etchingham to host only 7 way debate hooray!