To Boycott Or Not To Boycott? That Is The Question.

“Are there any women on the show tonight?”

I was greeted with this question as I popped my head round the door of the greenroom to say hello to the guests who were appearing on the nightly current affairs programme Scotland2014 (the Scottish equivalent to Newsnight).

I am the editor of the programme and most nights I like to meet the guests who are appearing in the studio to make sure they are happy, and that our researchers and producers have properly briefed them on the issues we will be discussing with them later on the programme.

That night, one of the guests was far from happy. He had obviously looked around the green room and noticed the lack of anyone with XX chromosomes.  In fact, five men – including two politicians, an environmental campaigner, a newspaper editor and a journalist – aside from myself were in the room that night.

“So is it all men tonight?” he asked again.

I quickly thought about all the guests on the programme that night. There were the five people in the greenroom but on any news programme you also have other guests who appear down the line from other studios and outside locations. I went through a mental checklist of all the items we were doing and the corresponding guests. I then thought about that night’s presenter and the reporters

“Yup. It’s all men tonight. There are no women tonight”. I replied trying to sound as factual as possible.

There then followed a brief conversation between us about how he thought it was wrong to appear on all-male panels and all-male programmes and there is really no excuse in this day and age for any programme to be all-male. He agreed to go on the programme but said he wouldn’t appear on future programmes if there were no women.

He’s not the only one who believes this. Two years ago Rebecca Rosen, in the Atlantic, suggested that men should sign up to a pledge not to speak on all-male panels. And last year Danny Cohen the Director of BBC TV declared the end of all-male comedy panel shows.

The frustrating thing for me and the team is that we did – and still do – pride ourselves on the diversity of both our on-screen representation and the staff working on the programme. From the output editors to the studio directors, the majority of the team are women. The majority of our reporters are also women and our main presenter is Sarah Smith (she was off sick that night). Also, when we launched the programme, one of our aims was to represent the whole of Scotland and not just hear from the usual “male and pale” men in suits.

But the truth is, we had become complacent. We thought we were doing so well that we stopped thinking about diversity. And so it was a shock to the system when the guest in the green room pulled us up on it.

That day I learnt three lessons which might seem obvious but I think are worth repeating

1. We live in a white, male-dominated world.

Yes, I know I sound like a teenager who has just discovered feminism by stating that. But in a white, male-dominated society unless you actively think about it productions can have a natural tendency to drift towards a non-diverse status quo.

2. Guests have power.

The guest was not rude about it. He asked a simple question and reminded us of what so many of us claim we are trying to achieve. Along with the possibility of a boycott of appearing on future programmes.

Which brings me to possibly the most important lesson.

3. People follow the leader.

While I gave a perfectly polite answer in the greenroom, I came out to the production office with much more stern words for the team. Despite all our best intentions, we were about to put out the very type of programme I had said I didn’t want to broadcast when we started. The team could see diversity was important to me as the head of the production. I didn’t brush it aside as an annoying guest asking for the equivalent of special blue M&Ms in the greenroom. Since then, they have made sure it is equally important to them when putting a show together.

The BBC is currently running a series of workshops to identify experts from BAME backgrounds to appear on the range of their output, which builds on the experience of having previously run workshops to identify female experts. There is no doubt that there are brilliant potential expert guests for TV programmes from all different backgrounds in all different shapes, sizes, sexes, disabilities, sexualities and colours.

As an editor, this initiative is welcome. But I also think lesson no. 3 above is critical for the BBC and other broadcasters to take on board.

I am looking forward to continuing to bring diverse experts onto Scotland2015 (the programme’s new name for the new year), and I hope other editors and other teams out there will not need guests to talk about potential boycotts in order to ensure our screens remain – and become even more – diverse.