Quality | 2010.03.11
Is Question Time's all-women audience a good idea? | Ceri Goddard
Critics complain that it\'s unfair, but an all-women audience on Question Time will redress an imbalance in our political arena
The BBC\'s decision to run with a women-only audience on tonight\'s Question Time should be commended for many reasons. The show will give ordinary women, whose all-important vote the parties have been falling over themselves to court, the chance to question if there\'s any policy substance behind their "female-friendly" spin.
The Fawcett Society, which this week challenged all parties to answer the question "what about women?", is not yet convinced that there is. With the parties\' leadership and key policymakers still overwhelmingly male and in a week when polls showed 49% of women don\'t feel politicians are listening to their views on the economy, this programme can only be a good thing. Of course, women are not all the same – but I\'m sure nearly all of us, women and men, can agree it\'s not good for anyone that we still have such an unequal position in the media and politics.
Despite this there have been some grumbles about the programme.First, there\'s the accusation that it\'s unbalanced to hear more from women as this is not reflective of the make-up of the population. I couldn\'t agree more. Public debates that are skewed towards one group or another have less general value. Unless, of course, it\'s about redressing an imbalance – in this case, by creating an exception to the usual rule of men\'s dominance in political broadcasts as guests or contributors.
Although you can just turn on the TV and observe this phenomenon, there is more formal evidence. A study released earlier this week highlighted that women are only used as major contributors on factually based programmes on 34% of occasions and when it comes to general vox pops, women are canvassed for their opinion only a third as frequently as men. The same research showed that men were much more likely to discuss so-called "harder" items, such as politics, international affairs, science and the economy on our screens, while women were more likely to be asked to give their views on education, environment, cooking, health and culture. Which brings me to the next critique I have heard: that it\'s wrong that the show should be skewed towards a prescribed set of "women\'s issues".
If this were true, there would be cause for complaint. But as the Question Time producers have pointed out, apart from the composition of the audience it will be an "ordinary" episode in every way. In other words, it will involve hearing women\'s questions and perspectives on the big issues of the day or the week. These will be as diverse as the women who take part. Of course, it\'s entirely possible that, just as happened in parliament when women\'s numbers increased, there might be more questions asked on issues that tend to impact more on women\'s lives and equality, such as childcare, public services funding cuts and low and unequal pay.
And that wouldn\'t be a bad thing. Question Time plays a key role in shaping debates and supporting participation in our democracy. You only have to look at the recent furore over Nick Griffin\'s appearance to see its influence on public and political opinion. As such, it is as important that women are equally heard and have equal chance to hold politicians to account on its platform as it is in the wider political arena. And because both female and male politicians need to be held to account by women, I also think it\'s right that men will be on the panel tonight – though the rationale behind asking Monty Don – though he seems very nice – evades me.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/[...]1/question-time-women-audience
