Is the BBC anti-men?

Is the BBC anti-men?

It was a ridiculous question, harrumphed Jeremy Paxman when asked whether television was a man's world. "The worst thing you can be in this industry is a middle-class white male," said the middle-class white male who is paid £1m a year by the BBC.

It seems that the Newsnight presenter has stopped talking about his underpants in order to just talk pants. In an interview at this weekend's MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV festival, Paxman said we should just look at Jana Bennett, the head of BBC Vision (all TV services), or BBC1 controller Jay Hunt to see how dominant women are.

Or we could look at the facts. Women fill 10 of the 35 most senior positions at the corporation, with just four sitting on the 15-strong executive board. Given that women make up half of the BBC workforce, that hardly suggests dominance. We have never had a female director general.

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When it comes to non-white executives, the figures are even worse. Women hold 37% of the top 750 senior management roles, but just 5% of these jobs go to ethnic minorities, who make up 11% of the total workforce. Speak to many of those lower down the ladder and the BBC appears as "hideously white" as it was seven years ago when Greg Dyke coined the phrase.

It's harder to talk about on-screen talent, although Mariella Frostrup hit back at Paxman this weekend in a debate called Women Know Your Place, in which she said men tended to dominate "positions of gravitas" - she cited Newsnight, the Today programme, Have I Got News For You and QI - while women front fluffy, lifestyle programmes. Yet the story of Carol Klein, passed over for the job of lead presenter on Gardeners' World, speaks volumes. When it comes to career opportunities post-50, white men reign supreme. Where is the grey-haired 58-year-old female newsreader, Jeremy?

guardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008