A disproportionate amount of the BBC’s output is designed to appeal to women, particularly its TV output, and the situation is getting worse with each passing year. Even when men are presenting programmes, or are the key characters in documentaries etc., it’s almost as if all the viewers are assumed to be women. I’m a fan of the TV chefs “The Hairy Bikers,” but it has to be said that ever more of the content of their shows is information light and entertainment rich. They’re often put in situations designed to make them look silly, e.g. dressing up as sumo wrestlers.
A number of people have alerted me to the domination of women in the television sector, and it’s not unique to the BBC. But because it’s not a commercial organisation, women have managed to manipulate their way to the top.
This is the latest edition of the Hairy Bikers’ latest series, The Hairy Bikers’ Asian Adventure. The credits start at 58:33. The programme will be available on iPlayer (in the UK, at least) until 27 March.
Here’s a breakdown of the roles of the people associated with the programme:
WOMEN (13)
BBC Commissioning Editor
Series Producer
Producer
Executive Producer
Edit Producer
Editor
Production Executive
Production Manager
Home Economist
Development Producer
Assistant Producers (2)
Production Co-ordinator
MEN (8)
Editor
Researcher
Dubbing Mixer
Online Editor
Colourist
Sound
Photography
Additional Photography
The most important jobs are being done by women, while the technical jobs are being done by men.
As Steve Moxon outlined in The Woman Racket (2008), women display a very strong same gender preference when recruiting and promoting staff, while men don’t, contrary to feminist conspiracy theories such as the “glass ceiling”.
Two-thirds of public sector employees are women, while one-third of private sector employees are. We’re seeing ever more preferencing of women by women in the private sector as time goes by. As Steve Moxon outlined in The Woman Racket (2008), women display a very strong same-gender preference when recruiting and promoting staff, while men don’t, contrary to feminist conspiracy theories such as the “glass ceiling”. Steve and I were members of a panel which gave evidence to a House of Commons inquiry (“Women in the Workplace”) in November 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwqTi6HN0pM
Two women were on the panel. One was the renowned sociologist Dr Catherine Hakim, whose paper on Preference Theory, published in 2000, we cite all the time. Her research showed that while four in seven British men are “work-centred,” only one in seven British women is. And that isn’t changing over time, whatever feminists might wish to believe.
The other woman on the panel was Heather McGregor, who for many years has been the owner and Chief Executive of Taylor Bennett, a London-based executive recruitment company. We challenged a claim she made during her evidence at the inquiry, concerning the financial impact of increasing the number of women on corporate boards in Norway (following legislated gender quotas, in 2005) and she altered her evidence – as published in the final inquiry report – accordingly.
Ms McGregor was a founder member of Helena Morrisey’s 30% Club, which aims to increase the proportion of women on major corporate boards. A third of FTSE100 chairmen are members. A reasonable person might think that Ms McGregor is keen on gender equality, so let’s look at the gender balance of Taylor Bennett:
http://www.taylorbennett.com/team/#/meetourteam
Of the 17 people in the company, just three are men. In the past it’s been only one or two.
