Get the latest gossip

‘At the start you get molested and by 45 you’re too old to work’ – the secret misery of women working in TV

One female director hides that she has a child; younger women face a 39% gender pay gap; and harassment is widespread. Insiders say it’s a wonder the television industry has any women left at all

Her co-director there is Rowan Aust, a fellow TV escaper who worked as a production manager and researcher on shows including Newsnight Review and currently studies the industry at the University of Huddersfield. Once you’re in the industry, the gender pay gap, according to 2021 data from the Time Project (run by the Share My Telly Job team and analysed by researchers at the University of York), is 17.6% for those on day rates. In her 2023 research Safe to Speak Up?, Dr Anna Bull found “the UK film and television industry is still not fulfilling its legal obligations around preventing and responding to sexual harassment in the workplace”.

Get the Android app