50:50 Project
50:50 Project
emap has been a founding partner of the BBC 50:50 The Equality Project since 2019.
The project began in the newsroom of the BBC, on the show Outside Source. Its presenter Ros Atkins noticed that during one week all the experts on the show were male, so with the help of his fellow journalists and producers actively sourced more female contributors and started to track progress. This then expanded outside of news, to other areas of BBC programming. Other broadcasters and media organisations were then invited to take part.
We currently have 14 brands taking part in the 50:50 Project. Each month the titles aim to have 50% female experts within their publications and at their events. Some industries are heavily male dominated like engineering, however the editorial teams continue to make solid progress to fairly represent the industries they serve.
We at emap are proud to be part of this 140-strong global partner network. Here are some words from the brands we have currently taking part in the 50:50 Project:
“The Drapers editorial team – of eight women and two men – will continue to expose inequity and discrimination in the industry, lead the way on diversity, equity and inclusion, and to make the voices of those under-represented in leadership heard. And we would urge all organisations to measure under-representation in their leadership, and actively address inequality.”
– Jill Geoghegan, Deputy Editor
“DFNI has been part of the BBC’s 50:50 Equality Project for over a year. Over the past 15 months, we have been encouraging female commentators to take part in our content and raising awareness among travel retail stakeholders of our efforts. Equity, diversity and inclusion are commitments that I am particularly passionate about and I am proud that DFNI is leading the charge to amplify the voice of expert women in our sector through our magazine and conferences.”
– Kapila Ireland, Editor
“Ground Engineering magazine is aimed at the geotechnical sector, which is still a male dominated industry. Only around 23% of geotechnical staff are female. Women – and other under-represented groups – are part of our readership, and we want them to feel that they’re heard, respected and catered to within our content. Since starting on the project, we’ve gone from 0% female contributors in the first issue to hitting 50% – or close to it – on several occasions.”
– Nia Kajastie, Editor
“Headlinemoney is proud to be a part of the 50:50 project. As a leading media resource in the traditionally male financial services sector, we’re perfectly placed to highlight female financial spokespeople. Journalists use Headlinemoney as a gateway to access financial experts and their comments, and our platform hosts a dedicated space spotlighting female spokespeople and making them accessible to journalists. This space increases the visibility of female financial commentators, helping journalists across the money media achieve a gender balance in their content.”
– Claire Beard, Head of Content and Strategy
“We were looking at ways to develop greater engagement with our readers when we heard about the 50:50 Project and it struck me that by better representing a large chunk of our readership we might be able to achieve this, at least to some degree.
According to a recent industry report, at least one-third of the people who own and run stores are female, but this wasn’t reflected in our coverage. We have made a little progress, but there is still a long way to go.”
– David Shrimpton, Editor
“The financial services industry, particularly the financial advice profession, continues to be dominated by white, middle-class, middle-aged, or older, men. Things are getting better, with people from diverse backgrounds starting to look at advice as a profession they might want to join, but there is still a long way to go. It is vital for Money Marketing to give a diverse range of individuals a voice so that people realise it is not just for the pale, stale male.”
– Michael Kilimes, Editor
“MRW backs the 50:50 Project as part of our commitment to promote equality, diversity and inclusion in the waste and recycling sector. This is reflected in our reporting, conferences and events. We were the first UK publication to analyse the gender pay gap for our sector and we support the industry leading Elevating Voices. The 50:50 Project is a good way of keeping track of our ambitions.”
– Corin Williams, Editor
“While we have always striven to include commentary and coverage of a diverse range of individuals and communities at Mortgage Strategy, the 50:50 project pushed us to extend this further. Some of the projects that have resulted from our commitment to 50:50 include a series of cover features on the experiences of women in the mortgage industry, challenges they face and hurdles still to overcome; the inclusion of questions related to equality in the market in our various profile pieces; and roundtable discussions on the same.”
– Rebekah Commane, Group Editor
“Being part of the BBC’s 50:50 project is important when it comes to working on the Inspiring Women in Construction and Engineering programme, which is a joint effort between NCE and sister title Construction News. We’re asking firms in the industry to demonstrate what they are doing to support the careers of women in the sector – the 50:50 project shows that NCE is playing its part too.”
– Claire Smith, Editor
“Property Week reports on an industry with skewed demographics, so the balance of people we quote often reflects that lack of diversity. In our three January issues, for example, we quoted 73 different experts in our non-news coverage, only 19 of whom were women (26%). February was an improvement, with 121 commentators quoted across four editions, 44 of whom were women (36%). Measurement is only the first step in making an improvement. And the goals of the 50:50 project don’t stop with gender, but aim to include other characteristics in the future such as ethnicity and people with disabilities, both visible and invisible.”
– Lem Bingley, Editor
“According to the International Energy Agency, the energy sector has historically been male dominated, with women accounting for only 16% of the workforce in 2022. However, since joining 50:50 in 2019, we have certainly seen a rise in women writing articles on the energy transition. We encourage women to share their industry knowledge by submitting articles to our magazines and speaking at our summits.”
– Rachel Storry, Managing Editor
“The jewellery trade is one that is naturally skewed towards female consumers who are typically the target market for new collections. However, this needn’t be the case in our reporting. The 50:50 project is a useful reminder of the need for balanced voices who can speak with authority on the many facets of the jewellery trade, such as design and manufacturing, branding, marketing, sales, and independent retail ownership.”
– Ruth Faulkner, Editor
“As consumer personal finance website, the goal of The Money Pages is to empower more people to take control of their money. We hope, by challenging ourselves every month to present an equal balance of male and female spokespeople, all our will readers feel they can better relate to our experts and the advice they are providing.”
– Kate Saines, Editor
“What Mortgage has an equal distribution of female and male consumer readers. We wanted our content to reflect this, but we were also keen to support the mortgage industry in providing a platform for the many brilliant female voices within the sector.”
– Kate Saines, Editor
