‘Rapid and real change’? The BBC’s pay gap shows women in the media are still underappreciated

The BBC was rightly criticised last year when it emerged that its top 12 highest earners were all men. Director-general Tony Hall had said the BBC was “making progress” and that “these things take time”, but a less diplomatic assessment was given by Jane Garvey of Woman’s Hour.

She told BBC Radio 4 that the pace of change was “absolutely glacial”.

“There needs to be a proper conversation about why, in 2018, we are still fighting the same old battle on equal pay,” she says.

A lot has changed in the 12 months since, and many of us were hoping that this year might see the situation looking rather different. And it does – but only by a little.

The annual report – the first since the BBC took action to tackle its gender pay problem – includes three women among the 10 best-paid: Claudia Winkleman, Zoe Ball and Vanessa Feltz. Respectively, they occupy sixth, seventh and ninth place on the list.

Of the 75 stars listed as earning over £150,000, 60 per cent are men. And it wasn’t until Zoe Ball became the host of the country’s biggest radio show, the Radio 2 Breakfast Show, that she even broke the top ten.

Her salary (as well as Claudia Winkelman’s) lags behind the £440,000 that Alan Shearer gets paid for appearing on Match of the Day, although Ball will rise up the ranks once she has a full annual salary under her belt. The BBC says there has been “rapid and real change”. But has there really?

In fact, the list remains a damning indictment of just how undervalued women are in the professional world, and especially in the media. BBC Breakfast’s Louise Minchin earns less than football pundit Jermaine Jenas. John McEnroe earns £190,000 for a mere two fortnight’s worth of Wimbledon coverage.

Exceptional journalists such as Emily Maitlis and Emma Barnett, who hold our politicians to account day in, day out, remain chronically undervalued compared to their male counterparts.

And the reality could be even worse – the list fails to take account of the lucrative production company contracts earned outside of the BBC, but relating to BBC programming, most of which are held by men.

According to an analysis by the Press Gazette, 91 per cent of UK-based media companies paid men more than women on average, based on the mean hourly rate. Eighty-five per cent paid more in mean bonus pay.

Women at the Telegraph Media Group are paid 35 percent less than men. Women at Conde Nast, publisher of Vogue, earn 63p for every £1 men earn – even though at every pay grade women are in the majority. Worse is that the pay disparity is increasing at a third of UK media companies. Jane Garvey’s quote about the “glacial” rate of change comes to mind.

The BBC sets the tone for all media companies in the UK. So long as there is a gender imbalance at the BBC, the message is clear: gender inequality is acceptable. But that also means that achieving gender parity at the Beeb will go a long way to driving gender parity elsewhere. And by placing a greater emphasis on women at the BBC, and on their potential to be role models for others, they will encourage a flow of women towards higher and higher positions.

Women encourage, mentor and actively hire other women – as the World Economic Forum has shown. Just as important is the message sent to girls and young women: rising to the top of the media world is possible.

Tony Hall has accepted that the BBC, as something that accepts money from the public, should be under heavy scrutiny. But he defended the BBC’s efforts over the past few years, saying he wanted to get to “50:50”. I’m sure many women will agree that, as a reflection of Britain, the BBC should be representative already.

Angelica Malin is the editor-in-chief of About Time Magazine, and founder of the She Started It Festival, which launched yesterday