overwhelming. The workplace was like some alternate universe and it shocked me
terribly. I think that things are improving now, but we still have a long way to go, and
there are still pockets in society - not just in my own industry - where women are seen
as some kind of My Fair Lady or Galatea type of creation, where they are just waiting
for a Pygmalion to mould them in the ‘correct’ or acceptable form.”
I wanted to know whether she felt the media sector generally had improved in terms of
outright discrimination?
“Look it is much better, but the difficulty is now, that because the discrimination
is much more discreet, it’s much harder to prove. MUCH harder to prove. There is
unconscious bias on many levels - sex, race, age. And of course, sadly – compared to
when I was younger, the gender pay gap is much larger.
I have loved it – and I still do love - being a journalist; but it remains a male dominated
industry. Yes, magazines are spoken of as being female-led - but think about it - their
audience is women! The majority of the media structure, both the old and the new
social media, is incredibly hard to break through. And it is ageist – media is everincreasingly a young person’s game.
The old structure may be breaking down in terms of traditional journalism, but it is not
breaking down in terms of becoming a place for older writers and presenters. It’s also
increasingly difficult for women in particular to get paid work in the new structure, and
that’s not ideal when it comes to breaking down bias either.”
This is where I took a deep breath and asked the million dollar question. Well, more like the
one million, one hundred and eighty-one thousand and thirty-four views question. What’s it