Recently there have been some big appointments at the BBC
with four new appointments to the Executive Board. With a new Director General
has come a new broom. So as well as Tony Hall as Director General, James Harding
has been appointed Director of News & Current Affairs, James Purnell – Director
of Strategy, and Danny Cohen - Director of Television.
In fact all the male Executive Directors on the BBC Executive
Board are white, privately educated and went to either Oxford or Cambridge.
At first sight this looks like a familiar story and it is a
criticism that the BBC often faces when it comes to the issue of diversity: You
have to be a white man to rise to the top, there is a glass ceiling and if you
didn’t go to Oxbridge you don’t stand a chance.
However this typical criticism is only half the story and if
we are going to increase diversity we need to dig a little deeper, look at the
other half and figure out what lessons we can learn from it.
There are in fact three female Executive Directors on the
BBC Executive Board and they are not all white; Helen Boaden – Director of
Radio, Lucy Adams – Director of HR and Zarin Patel – Chief Financial Officer.
There is even a forth if you count Fran Unsworth who is Acting Director of News
and will step aside when James Harding takes his position.
What is interesting about the women is that when it comes to
universities they are almost the exact opposite of their male counterparts. Unlike
the men not one of them went to Oxford or Cambridge University.
So what does this tell us about trying to increase diversity
at the BBC and the media in general?
First of all does it tell us that when it comes to people from a diverse background is it a disadvantage to have gone to Oxford or Cambridge? This I doubt very much and flies in the face of my own experience of working in the television industry for twenty years. At the Executive Producer level and above people who went to Oxbridge (men and women) are still vastly over represented, Mark Thompson when he left the BBC even commented that there were "too many" people from Oxbridge working at the BBC. Fiona Bruce, Stephanie Flanders, Jay Hunt are just three Oxbridge Alumni that spring to mind.
First of all does it tell us that when it comes to people from a diverse background is it a disadvantage to have gone to Oxford or Cambridge? This I doubt very much and flies in the face of my own experience of working in the television industry for twenty years. At the Executive Producer level and above people who went to Oxbridge (men and women) are still vastly over represented, Mark Thompson when he left the BBC even commented that there were "too many" people from Oxbridge working at the BBC. Fiona Bruce, Stephanie Flanders, Jay Hunt are just three Oxbridge Alumni that spring to mind.
However what I believe the careers of Helen Boaden, Lucy Adams and Zarin Patel tell us is that, unlike their male counterparts' career paths, for people from diverse backgrounds our career paths are more complicated.
Often when it comes to men there is a set career path that has already been prescribed and can be followed. The career paths for people from diverse backgrounds are often far more varied and complicated. Not going to Oxbridge is often just the start of an "unconventional career path".
It is also a testimony to how amazing these women have been in breaking the glass ceilings they have broken and risen to the top. The type of character traits one needs to overcome the obstacles in one field (i.e. not coming from an Oxbridge background) are often the same traits you need to overcome obstacles in other fields (be that race or gender).
As a black man who is trying to break glass ceilings of his own in the media industry (and who didn't go to Oxbridge) it inspires me that you can rise to the top of the BBC if you didn’t go to Oxbridge.
Often when it comes to men there is a set career path that has already been prescribed and can be followed. The career paths for people from diverse backgrounds are often far more varied and complicated. Not going to Oxbridge is often just the start of an "unconventional career path".
It is also a testimony to how amazing these women have been in breaking the glass ceilings they have broken and risen to the top. The type of character traits one needs to overcome the obstacles in one field (i.e. not coming from an Oxbridge background) are often the same traits you need to overcome obstacles in other fields (be that race or gender).
As a black man who is trying to break glass ceilings of his own in the media industry (and who didn't go to Oxbridge) it inspires me that you can rise to the top of the BBC if you didn’t go to Oxbridge.
Oxford and Cambridge might be two of the best
universities in Britain but when it comes to women and people from diverse
backgrounds it would appear that other universities are just as good (if not
better) at equipping them with the skills to rise to the top.
And lastly, if we believe we have to be part of a special “club”
(be an Oxbridge alumni) to break the glass ceiling often this can be a self-fulfilling
prophecy which limits the scope of our ambition.
If the BBC, and the media industry generally, want to increase
diversity in the work force we should concentrate less on the stories of the successful white men, and instead look at the people from diverse backgrounds who have
broken the glass ceiling. We should ask which universities did they go? What skills did they develop from these institutions? What has been
their career path?
By the age of 18 at my first day at Sussex University my career path had already diverged from the most powerful white men at the BBC, but for women, disabled people and BME people there is more than one way to get to where we want to go.
By the age of 18 at my first day at Sussex University my career path had already diverged from the most powerful white men at the BBC, but for women, disabled people and BME people there is more than one way to get to where we want to go.
By the time you were born, your career path had already diverged from the most powerful white men at the BBC, Marcus. But keep bucking that glass ceiling. Just don't forget to wear a crash helmet!
ReplyDeleteBlackwatch - Crash helmets are definitely needed. One of my concerns is what trying to break the glass ceiling does to people's mental health. But that might be for another post.
Delete