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Older women disappear from presenting roles across the BBC while older men are regarded as “gaining gravitas and wisdom”, according to an internal review of the broadcaster’s record on representation.
A “noticeable mismatch” in the number of staff and freelance male and female presenters over the age of 60 was uncovered by the review.
It heard evidence that while older men are seen as becoming imbued with greater authority, older women had to either keep looking younger or develop “idiosyncratic personas”.
While women outnumbered men in terms of presenters under 50, men “significantly outnumbered” women among the over-50s – with 237 women to 394 men.
It found there are nearly four times as many male presenters over 60 as female in the BBC’s content division, which makes programmes. There were nearly twice as many older men than women – 31 compared with 16 – in BBC News.
Within the nations and the English regions division, there were between three and four times as many older men as female presenters.
The mismatch was “even more acute” among the over-70s. Across the three divisions, there were 57 men over 70 and only 11 women. The data encompassed almost 1,500 staff and freelance presenters directly contracted by the BBC.
The internal review on portrayal and representation in BBC content, ordered by the BBC’s board, was carried out by former Bafta chair Anne Morrison and independent media consultant Chris Banatvala.
“There’s evidence that, as they age, women tend to move from television to audio,” the authors said. “We were told that, as they get older, men in the media are portrayed as gaining gravitas and wisdom associated with authority. It works differently for women.
“It was argued that, if they stayed on television, older women had either to try to keep looking younger or to opt out altogether from being judged on their looks and develop idiosyncratic personas.”
The authors said they had not found evidence of “systemic discrimination”.
Labour peer Harriet Harman, who repeated her previous call on regulator Ofcom to examine the issue, said women faced “the double jeopardy of ageism and sexism”.
“An older man is admired as a silver fox, but an older woman is written off as past it,” she said. “Women shouldn’t have to make themselves look younger or face being banished from our screens. It’s a waste of talent. And discrimination. Once a woman on TV reaches 50, she’s an endangered species.”
Presenter Selina Scott, who reached a settlement with Channel Five in 2008 after launching a legal action for age discrimination, said she had not seen the change she had been promised when she began campaigning on the issue.
“It is telling that the BBC has never had a female director general,” she said. “The BBC … is inward looking,” she said. “The effect however is devastating. An entire age group in the UK has, in effect, been cancelled.”
BBC insiders said the findings showed evidence of “misogyny – pure and simple”. One said: “Women know what’s happening … it’s a reflection of society’s view of women.”
The BBC has faced criticism over its treatment of older women over several years. In 2011, former presenter Miriam O’Reilly won her case for age discrimination after she was dropped from the rural affairs show, Countryfile.
More recently, four presenters settled a claim over a recruitment process, alleging age and sex discrimination. The BBC maintained the process had been “rigorous and fair”.
The representation review also suggested that key BBC programmes were still not using enough female experts in their coverage, despite closing the gap with men in recent years.
The BBC’s Ten O’Clock News and the Today programme had ratios of just over two men for every female expert interviewed.
With the BBC facing criticism from the political right over an alleged liberal bias, the review found the “two most persistent issues” related to the representation of working-class voices and perspectives from outside London.
“Overall, there appears to be less positive portrayal of white, working-class men and women in BBC output particularly when looked at cumulatively,” it found. “Portrayal of working-class communities can often rely on the themes of poverty, crime, addiction and deindustrialisation with an absence of role models.”
BBC executives are particularly sensitive to the charge given the rise of Reform UK and its criticism over the BBC’s coverage.
The review also warned of a “noticeably low number of black reporters and presenters on-air”.
“[News presenter] Clive Myrie is the best-known exception, but this runs the risk of overreliance on one particularly prominent senior black journalist,” it said. “We understand that news management is aware of this underrepresentation and is seeking to address it.”
The BBC noted that the review found “significant progress in portraying and representing the UK across its content”. It said it would be reviewing content plans “to ensure underrepresented audience groups are reflected authentically”.
It has committed to improving how it measures representation in relation to socioeconomic background, geography and age.
