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Dear John

Sexism in presenting

First published 20th January 2005 (amended Feb 2008)

Question:
I'm a 40-year-old female TV journalist with a lot of experience. But I wish someone would tell my employers that. I find that even when I co-host a show the male presenters always get the lead stories. To add insult to injury I'm now finding that younger female colleagues with less experience are getting more primetime slots while I always seem to get allocated the late shifts. What can I do? My producer is a woman but that doesn't seem to help - in fact I got more exposure when I had a male in charge.

Answer:
Not that this will cheer you up much but this is a complaint I hear from many female clients in several different areas of broadcasting. With that in mind I thought something that might lift your spirits slightly more would be to get a perspective from my colleague Joanne Mallon, who, as well as being a coach specialising in working with women in the creative and media industries is also a journalist and freelance producer for BBC, ITV and others. Here is Joanne's response to your letter:

"Reading between the lines, there is a lot about what is going on with the people around you but what is going on for you, yourself?

"Ultimately, we cannot change other people's thoughts and behaviors - we can only choose to change our own. If your colleagues do not value you, that is their choice, but it doesn't have to be your choice. You are a successful woman who co-hosts a show - a job most of your contemporaries would swap places with in a heartbeat. How much do you value your own experiences and achievements? What do you want to happen next in your career and life? Are the lead stories really what you want or something you feel you 'should' be doing? What do you really want to happen in this situation? What are you prepared to do to make it happen?

"It is quite a major shift in attitude to move from seeing yourself as a victim of circumstances to someone who is a powerful professional with choices. I recently worked with a client who was in a similar situation to you.

"She felt that her gender and age were getting in the way of what she wanted to achieve as a presenter. Since neither of those two facts could be changed (without radical surgery!) we looked at the aspects of her life that she could change that would make a difference, especially in terms of her attitude to work. She quickly identified that she could do more preparation before her shifts in order to perform them to her best ability. We also worked on how she could become more assertive in dealing with colleagues, especially in meetings.

"And the strategy worked - she found she was getting more shifts in the slots she wanted and more compliments about her work. It may seem a small change to make but actually walking into a meeting feeling that you are a valuable person with much to contribute and who deserves to be listened to is a very different proposition to loping in and expecting to be overlooked again. Try it for size yourself and see what difference it makes."

* Joanne Mallon can be contacted via her website www.joannemallon.com