Half of on-air experts will be female by 2019, BBC pledges

THE BBC has pledged to feature equal numbers of male and female experts on air by next year.

The broadcaster said it will ensure that at least half of the contributors featured on its news, current affairs and topical shows will be women – and the gender balance will be monitored monthly. Its announcement comes after the Corporation revealed it has a gender pay gap of 9.3 per cent.

The broadcaster has already promised to increase the number of women in prominent roles to 50 per cent by 2020.

The challenge to achieve a 50:50 gender balance has already been adopted by several programmes, including The One Show and BBC News at Six and Ten.

However, some programmes which already have a focus on gender will not be expected to achieve a 50:50 balance because of the nature of the shows.

Fran Unsworth, director of news, said: ‘The success already delivered demonstrates the desire and commitment of BBC teams to lead the way on this important issue.

‘That’s why, the BBC is now setting the challenge of all programmes … that use expert contributors to meet a 50:50 split of contributors by April 2019.’