BBC women send open letter to director general
SOME of the BBC’s most high-profile female personalities have written a frank open letter to Director General Tony Hall calling on him to act now to tackle the gender pay gap.
Household names including presenters Clare Balding, Victoria Derbyshire and Angela Rippon are among the more than 40 women urging him to “correct this disparity” over gender pay.
It comes after documents setting out the pay for staff on more than £ 150,000 showed a sizeable gap in the earnings of the corporation’s most well-known male and female presenters and actors, with Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans topping the list on more than £2 million, while the highest paid woman was Strictly’s Claudia Winkleman on between £450,000-£499,999.
In the letter, the signatories say they will be “prepared to meet” Mr Hall “so future generations of women do not face this kind of discrimination”.
It reads: “The pay details released in the report showed what many of us have suspected for years... that women at the BBC are being paid less than men for the same work.
“Compared to many women and men, we are well compensated and fortunate. However, this is an age of equality and the BBC is an organisation that prides itself on its values.
“You have said that you will ‘sort’ the gender pay gap by 2020, but the BBC has known about the pay disparity for years.
“We all want to go on the record to call upon you to act now.”
Wimbledon presenter Sue Barker, Today programme journalists Mishal Husain and Sarah Montague and BBC Breakfast regular Sally Nugent are among those to have added their names to the list.
Correspondents including Katya Adler and Lyse Doucet have also backed the move to end discrimination against women.
The letter adds: “Beyond the list, there are other areas, including production, engineering and support services and global, regional and local media, where a pay gap has languished for too long.
“This is an opportunity for those of us with strong and loud voices to use them on behalf of all, and for an organisation that had to be pushed into transparency to do the right thing.
“We would be willing to meet you to discuss ways in which you can correct this disparity so that future generations of women do not face this kind of discrimination.”
A BBC spokesman said: “We have made significant changes over the last three years but need to do more. Tony Hall has pledged the BBC will go further faster.
“Across the BBC, the average pay of men is 10% higher than women. The national average is 18%.
“We are committing to closing it by 2020 – something no other organisation has committed to doing.
“The BBC’s workforce has been hired over generations and this is complex and cannot be done overnight.”