TV bosses tried to pay me less as a working mother, says Julia
COUNTRYFILE presenter Julia Bradbury claims she was told by producers that she should accept lower pay because she is a working mother.
The BBC star, who co-hosted the programme for five years, said she was offered less money because she had to juggle childcare with work.
As part of her role she often has to travel around the country, meaning she spends time away from her three young children.
The discrimination she faced and the pressure to accept a lower pay package and see her family less made her want to quit, Miss Bradbury revealed.
‘Some producers hold it [being a mother] against you and say, “Ah well, in which case we’ll drop your fee because you’ve got to go home”,’ she told BBC Radio 5 live.
‘I don’t believe men or women should be penalised for trying to strike the right life/work balance and on the whole I would like to encourage all working environments to be supportive of homelife commitments.’
Miss Bradbury, 46, felt she needed to ‘negotiate harder’ to ensure she was still able to see her children regularly during filming, she added. Speaking about her new ITV series, Britain’s Best Walks, she said: ‘It does become harder leaving [my children] and when I do the walks series and we’re on the road for six weeks, I make it a rule that I have to be home every three days so that I can have a bath time and a breakfast with them.
‘Otherwise they forget who I am. It has been put to me that because I have to go home to see my children that I shouldn’t
‘Need to find the right balance’
be financially compensated in the same way.’
The presenter, who has worked for the BBC and ITV, is married to property developer Gerard Cunningham. They have twin daughters Xanthe and Zena, who are nearly two, and a five-yearold son, Zephyrus.
Refusing to name the producers involved, or the programme she was working on at the time the offending comment was made, Miss Bradbury said it was an ‘isolated incident’. But she claimed it made her consider her future in the industry.
‘I felt it was a disheartening negotiation tactic and I was disappointed by it,’ she told The Sunday Times.
‘I hope that the gender pay gap becomes a non-issue in my daughters’ lifetimes and it becomes more about a shift in attitudes towards men and women who quite rightly need to find the right balance in life.
‘There will be times when your children need you more than others and the workplace needs to reflect and understand that.’
The Fawcett Society, a charity which campaigns for gender equality, accused the anonymous producers of penalising Miss Bradbury for being a mother. ‘These comments belong in the 1950s, not in 2017,’ said chief executive Sam Smethers.
‘Until we see many more dads taking shared parental leave or working flexibly, women will face a motherhood penalty.’
The pay gap between men and women – including both full- and part-time employees – is 19.2 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Think-tank the Resolution Foundation published a study last week which found that although the wage gap is narrowing, women in their 30s still face a ‘pay penalty’ if they become mothers.