Older women are losing media roles, with some employers having used the pandemic as an excuse to get rid of them. Jenny Sims reports on recent research


When a woman’s L


egal action over ageism taken by women in the media is the public tip of a huge iceberg, according to Karen Ross, a professor of gender and media at


Newcastle University.


And Professor Ross, of the university’s school of arts and cultures, believes age discrimination is even affecting female employees below the age of 40. A presentation by Professor Ross shone a light on bias against older women across the industry, drawing on interviews with 24 older female media professionals and their testimonials. The professor was addressing a workshop in the run-up to the NUJ’s delegate meeting in April, when delegates are expected to call on the union to take stronger action to tackle ageism. Participants in her study had worked or were


still working as journalists, presenters, producers or actors. Ross said: “Their experiences included having their contracts summarily terminated or not renewed, being manoeuvred out of front-of- camera roles, seeing their career opportunities evaporate when they reached their 40s or even earlier, and being replaced by younger women.” Those brave enough to challenge dismissals,


redundancies or job role changes at employment tribunals, even if they won their case, sometimes felt they had lost, she said. When they could no longer find an equivalent job in the same field, some of her respondents said they felt depressed, believing their careers were over. This is a harsh price to pay, particularly for


women in their late 40s and 50s. For self- preservation, few women go to court. The few


16 | theJournalist


who do often make the headlines. The first to win a UK tribunal case on age


discrimination was former BBC presenter Miriam O’Reilly (pictured) in 2011, after she was dropped from its rural affairs show, Countryfile, at the age of 53. O’Reilly was awarded £150,000. After the


tribunal, the BBC issued an apology and said it would give additional training to senior editorial executives, and issue new guidance on the fair selection of presenters. They admitted the findings raised questions that needed to be addressed by the whole industry.


Little change over a decade So, 11 years on, how much has changed? Not enough, thinks Ross. In 2022, Donna Traynor, presenter of the flagship Northern Ireland TV Newsline programme, quit aged 56 after the BBC planned to move her to a role off screen. She started legal proceedings (which are ongoing) against the corporation on the grounds of sexism and ageism. While the two cases were different, in both, ‘gendered ageism’ was at the base of decisions to dismiss them or move them out of their existing presenting roles, says Ross. She asks whether these hearings are the public tip of a much larger iceberg, which also includes micro-discriminations and instances of professional undermining that many older women experience. Her research demonstrates that they most definitely are. She has looked at employment


tribunal cases worldwide brought on grounds of ageism and sexism, and


found that mostly cases of ageism were upheld rather than both together. Yet evidence suggests that, all too often, a woman’s sell-by date is judged by her age and appearance rather than her experience, skills and competence. Managers use coded language such as ‘needing fresh talent’ as an excuse when they want to replace them with younger faces. Ross says that after more than half a


century of equality legislation in the UK and elsewhere, it is ‘extremely disappointing’ to see women moved out of front-of-camera roles as anchors and presenters, marginalised in newsrooms and losing work as actors when they are perceived to have reached the end of their ‘viable’ career. She points out that such decisions, based on physical attractiveness rather than professional competence, do not make sense in today’s environment in which older viewers make up the vast majority of the terrestrial TV audience, and where studies show that viewers of all ages say


face doesn’t fit


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