The BBC was not being ageist in its attitude towards Miriam O’Reilly. It is happy to employ older male presenters to add gravitas and younger women to provide eye candy. This is not ageist it is sexist. Is the distinction important?
Would you be surprised if I said there was an Italian late night news show in which the weather is presented by young women in sexy bathing costumes, bikinis if it’s going to be hot and one piece if it’s going to be cold? Would you consider the fact that by adopting this type of approach Italian TV has more female presenters than British TV a step forward in equality or a step backwards?
So it is not just about numbers. It also not just about the BBC they are reflecting what they think audiences want which of course is exactly what Italian TV producers would say. Television is reflecting widely held attitudes in society it is just that they are less subtle about it in Italy. It is also not down to unenlightened men as a significant proportion of people making decisions about who is right for their shows are women.
Not only does this tell us much about attitudes to women it has parallels with other areas of equality. For example the number of black people working in local authorise was increased by creating posts specifically to work with ethnic minority communities. Subsequently these staff found it difficult to move on even to other posts in policy and training as they were considered too specialist. A bit like being the” weather girl” gets you into TV but could work against you getting a post as a serious presenter.
The desire to increase the number of people from Ethnic minority groups within the local authorities’ workforce was genuine but by focusing on numbers not attitudes the result was unintended and ultimately unhelpful. Like the BBC, local authorities have a responsibility not just to reflect public opinion but to lead it, to challenge attitudes not collude with them. So local authorities should lead by example in employing people with a learning disability, not creating jobs specifically for people with a disability to increase the numbers, hit equality targets and look good but challenge and change attitudes of managers and colleagues.
This is not easy and is even more difficult in the current financial climate with cuts to training budgets and redundancies but this does not excuse us from thinking more clearly about the roots of discrimination and how best to tackle them.
Blair McPherson author of An Elephant in the Room-an equality and diversity training manual published by www.russellhouse.co.uk