For broadcasting too, there has been much focus on the role of women both on and off-screen, most recently on the number of expert women used on TV and radio in a campaign by Broadcast magazine.

So, this year's International Women's Day - a day when many around the world hold events to celebrate the achievement of women and inspire other women to achieve in the future -comes at a particularly pertinent moment.

And it seemed an appropriate opportunity to share some of the work we at the BBC have been doing around this issue and to respond on the particular point of the BBC's decision not to sign Broadcast magazine's "pledge" to increase the numbers of expert women on air.

We have shared with Broadcast our whole-hearted support for the pledge's broad principles, but we have at the same time explained why the BBC does not sign up to the numerous pledges, compacts and campaigns that we are periodically invited to endorse. (see our Editorial Guidelines under Impartiality sections 4.4.20 and 22).

We believe a far greater impact and more sustainable outcomes will be achieved if the aims of the pledge are agreed and promoted by the existing industry body for diversity, the Creative Diversity Network (CDN). This approach would allow all broadcasters to work collaboratively to promote women in the industry. As Chair of the CDN, the BBC suggested this approach to CDN CEOs when they met at the end of February and this will be formally proposed to CDN steering group members on 14th March.

Of course, we cannot ignore the fact that society - particularly those areas which are most likely to be the focus of News and Current Affairs - is unequal when it comes to gender balance. 78% of the Cabinet is male as are 79% of MPs in general; 85% of FTSE directors are men and 95% of FTSE chief executives. The same imbalances are replicated in academia, journalism, the judiciary and across most areas of life including at the more senior levels of public office. This is not how it should be, but it is the reality. It is not in spite of - but because of - these challenges, that the BBC makes concerted efforts to encourage more female representation among its programme contributors but also among our presenters, correspondents and the large off-screen workforce, including those who make influential editorial and creative decisions. The BBC's Director General Mark Thompson recently laid out our position in the Daily Mail (9 Feb 2012).

Half of our audiences are female (and so is half of our staff) and intrinsic to our public purpose remit is the BBC's commitment to reflect all society and to give a voice to those who are not always heard or seen as well as to the mainstream. See our Equality Information annual report for more detail.

Our recent work for on-air/on-screen female representation has included:

• In January this year we published the results of the Serving All Ages Report which we commissioned, in 2011 on behalf of the CDN which sought to uncover (within the context of a broader examination of age portrayal) to what extent audiences are concerned about the visibility of middle aged and older women on screen. Work now begins to share the findings across the industry and develop actions to respond to them.

• Also in 2011, the BBC led the development of Framework of Actions on Gender Equality to respond to, complement and support the work carried out by the European Commission and European social partners in the field of gender equality and to extend it within the audio-visual sector. The Framework was adopted in October 2011 and covers gender portrayal, as well as addressing gender roles at work, equal pay, equality in decision.

• Closer to home, in the wake of the Miriam O' Reilly case ruling, we have developed and delivered training on fair selection for nearly 400 managers responsible for appointing presenters across BBC Vision, Audio & Music and Journalism. We have also just developed Diversity Top Tips: Recruiting diverse presenters -to complement the training.

Off-screen, diverse employee representation is equally critical. The BBC employs over 20,000 staff the vast majority of whom do not appear on screen and we have a responsibility as a major public service employer to reflect our audience across the entire workforce.

We have a long track record of developing opportunities for women - in engineering for example - and we know that the look and feel of our output, including how accurately we reflect the modern UK, is directly influenced by those who make key editorial and creative decisions. This must remain a primary focus for us.

Today, the findings of 'Serving All Ages' have been published, and follow a public commitment by the CDN to do more to serve all audiences, and understand better attitudes towards portrayal of age in the media.

This kind of research offers insight into an area that really matter to the people who really matter to broadcasters - the audience. And, as the UK population ages - nearly half the British workforce will be aged 50 plus by 2030 - it's just as pertinent as ever.

What we found

The main finding showed that people are less concerned about age portrayal on radio and the internet than they are on television and whilst age was not immediately an issue of concern for most of the participants, once raised it did reveal areas of discussion and areas of concern. When discussing age portrayal on television, a number of areas were identified as opportunities to develop. These were:

• Young people, aged 16-24, are most concerned about how they are portrayed. Many feel they are shown negatively as taking undue risks, being promiscuous, drunk, taking drugs and being very materialistic.
• Concern at negative portrayal of young people was also shared by older audiences.
• Younger people think this image can make older people frightened of them, and also make it more difficult to get on in life and start a career.
• The apparent 'invisibility' of older people, and particularly middle aged (women 40-55) and older women (55 plus) was raised. It was felt there were just not enough of them on screen compared to older men.
• For older people generally, there was a feeling, and largely an acceptance, that TV is a 'younger medium'.
• Older people welcomed more visibility and expressed a desire for portrayal to move away from older people being the 'butt of a joke', infirm or grumpy. There was a desire be portrayed as 'young at heart' and open to new challenges.

What are the next steps?

We've shared the findings with some of the top people at the CDN, as well the BBC and the BBC Trust. In order for broadcasters to deliver high quality programming, a sophisticated understanding of what drives audience judgements is essential and this is what the findings of the CDN's Serving All Ages will provide broadcasters. Both audiences and experts told us they want the media they consume to be both entertaining and of high quality first and foremost. Ensuring accurate and authentic portrayal, including age, will help ensure this quality in output.

Today we're publishing the BBC Diversity Strategy for 2011-15, outlining our commitment to diversity in the programmes we make and the people we work with. We are also publishing the research and consultation that have helped shape this strategy and perhaps most importantly, the action plans divisions will use to implement it.

Two factors influenced this strategy: our desire to connect with all audiences to ensure licence fee-payers' feedback helped shape the strategy, and the recently introduced Equality Act 2010 - specifically the public sector equality duty which requires all public bodies to take active steps to reduce inequality. This presents the BBC with a great opportunity to bring our obligations as a fair employer together with our wider commitment to reflect the full diversity of the UK in the content we make.

For the research which we commissioned in partnership with the BBC Trust, workshops were held with the public, gathering feedback from a cross section of the UK. We also ran a consultation for staff and the public from November to January, which received almost 5,000 responses. There were a number of themes in the responses to both research and the consultation such as a desire for accurate and authentic portrayal, concerns about the use of stereotypes, and an expectation that the BBC leads by example in this area. There was a broad support for the BBC's diversity objectives, but also a desire to know how we would achieve them.

We've taken the responses in both the research and consultation on board and have worked with the BBC's divisions to lay out action plans that show how each part of the BBC will work towards these objectives.

The most exciting element for us is seeing tangible progress towards these objectives across the organisation. Following our research into the portrayal of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people across BBC services last year, we've held various workshops with production teams to encourage greater consideration of the portrayal of LGB people and to help inform issues such as the need for accurate authentic portrayal on our output. On the BBC workforce, we've had ambitious staff targets in place for some time focusing on ethnicity and disability and feel we're making good progress to reach these, but there is still work to be done particularly in relation to diversity amongst our senior leaders . We have a range of great schemes in place - just this week, as chair of the Cultural Diversity Network, we launched the Senior Mentoring Scheme, which pairs black and minority ethnic (BME) and disabled staff from across the broadcasting industry with mentors to help them build and develop the key skills to reach senior positions in the media. Also, the Journalism Trainee Scheme and 2012 Apprenticeships have brought in people from an incredible range of backgrounds that have real talent but may not have had the opportunities or experience to consider a career at the BBC before.

For the BBC, diversity is about working with a diverse range of talented people and using that diversity as a creative force to make the most original and distinctive programmes which mirror the whole audience. For the BBC, diversity is about working with a diverse range of talented people and using that diversity as a creative force to make the most original and distinctive programmes which mirror the whole audience. The new diversity strategy will help us to achieve this and I look forward to keeping you updated along the way.

Amanda Rice is the BBC's Head of Diversity

• The Diversity Strategy, Diversity Action Plans, Research and Consultation can be found on the BBC Diversity webpage.

This week is an eventful one in the calendar of the BBC Diversity team and I wanted to take a moment to share some updates and information with you.

Tonight we hold our official launch event to mark the BBC’s takeover as Chair of the Cultural Diversity Network (CDN), an association of Britain's leading broadcasters and independent production companies who come together to consider all aspects of diversity ethnic minority representation, disability, sexual orientation, age, gender and social background in the broadcasting industry. Tameka Empson, better known as Kim from EastEnders and one of the 3 Non Blondes, will host the evening – attended by representatives from broadcasters and independent companies from across the UK television industry.

Mark Thompson, as the Chair for the next two years, will talk about some of the upcoming priorities. Over the next year the CDN will be focusing on age,and will seek to understand more about what our audiences really want and expect, as well as exploring the potential barriers or opportunities for women and men of differing ages in broadcasting. In addition, as the sharing of information and research to promote diversity is one of the chief aims of the CDN we’re considering other projects relating to varying diversity areas that could be undertaken.

For the BBC, our intention is to build on the great work done by Channel 4 as previous Chair and further the work of the CDN in promoting diversity in television, on and off-screen. For example, we’re very much looking forward to hosting the CDN Awards later in the year. Established in 2009, these awards are a fantastic celebration of the wealth of diversity and creative talent across the industry both on and off-screen. We’ll keep you updated so watch out for details of the awards.

Another of the big projects for the coming year is the Senior Mentoring Scheme which resumes in May. Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) and disabled groups are under-represented at senior levels in the UK broadcast industry and this mentoring scheme – now in its third year – provides senior industry figures as mentors for talented people from these groups. Between the participating broadcasters we’ve managed to increase the number of places on the scheme from 30 last year to 50 and there’ll be more news to follow on how the participants progress.

This scheme holds real significance for me as everyone working within the industry has a responsibility for promoting diversity and I firmly believe we can achieve the most by working in partnership with industry colleagues. This is just the start of the BBC’s tenure as Chair and I look forward to keeping you updated on our progress throughout the year ahead.

Finally, I wanted to take this opportunity to mark this week’s International Women’s Day - a day when many around the world hold events to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. In celebration, the BBC’s Diversity Centre produced a gallery of images of women from the 1920s to present day who have played a role in the life and development of the BBC. The gallery is displayed on the ground floor of Television Centre and if you visit any BBC buildings up and down the country you will see a selection of the posters displayed. You can visit the official website for further information on International Women’s Day.

Amanda Rice is Head Of Diversity

Today the BBC opens a consultation to ask for your views about our ongoing diversity work.

As a body funded by licence fee payers, the BBC is continually finding ways to talk to and involve the widest possible range of audiences including under-served communities. Asking people to tell us how well they think we serve and reflect specific groups within society and acting on that feedback is part and parcel of that.

People’s views contribute to raising awareness around what is meaningful and distinctive to different groups and to driving creative ideas.
Ultimately, we want to inform the production and editorial decisions that influence how and to what extent the breadth of UK diversity is represented on screen. Thinking about, including and reflecting our diversity helps us tell the most original and compelling stories.

Working towards those aims, we also want a workforce that is as diverse as modern Britain and we have developed a plan to achieve that  – but we want to hear what our staff and the public think about our direction.

At the beginning of October, the main provisions of the Equality Act came into force. The Equality Act 2010 consolidates a patchwork of previous legislation into one Act to simplify the law.  The Equality Act 2010 is wide reaching and provides a clear framework which will protect more people from discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation in a number of key areas. 

In addition, in April next year the Public Sector Equality Duty element of the Act will be enforced.  This means that along with other public bodies, the BBC will need to show how it has considered active steps to advance equality, eliminate discrimination and foster good relations between people from different groups across various activities and functions.  Speaking to the public and listening to their views and concerns is a vital part of this activity.

We’re want to consult with you on the BBC’s broad ambitions on diversity and to ask what you think of our plans. In much the same way we recently asked people for their views on disability and other diversity issues.

We want you to tell us what you expect of the BBC in relation to equality and diversity, and how well you think we’re doing. We’re interested to hear what you think of the areas we’ve prioritised and your contributions to this dialogue.

For the BBC, diversity is about harnessing greater creativity to make the most original and distinctive programmes which reflect the full diversity of society. We’re best placed to do that if we understand our audiences and employ the most talented staff from the broadest range of backgrounds. Have a look at some recent examples of our programmes to see how we’re striving to reflect the breadth and depth of diversity in the UK.

Don’t forget to take part and tell us what you think - our consultation closes on January 7th 2011.

Amanda Rice is the BBC's Head of Diversity

This year, as part of the BBC's diversity strategy, we carried out research and consultation on the portrayal of lesbian, gay and bisexual people across broadcast media including the BBC. Read about the research.

• Read the Press Release.
• See the BBC Archive's collection on the Gay Rights movement.
• Read Tim Davie's blog posts about the portrayal of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in broadcasting.

It's nice to know that when we do that well - when we seek to really understand and connect with difference through authentic portrayal and programmes - we also make programmes which a whole range of audiences love.

Just look at the past couple of weeks. The BBC has picked up awards related to our output which all serve to highlight the real progress we are making in being more reflective of our distinct audiences.

At the Ability Media International Awards (AMI) 2009, BBC One's The Street (pictured above), which presents a complex and compelling insight into the lives of individuals from diverse backgrounds, won the Television Award, whilst the Radio Award went to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the result of a collaboration between Radio 4 and Graeae, a disabled-led theatre company.

This follows last week's Cultural Diversity Network (CDN) Awards where a strand of our excellent Storyville series, Heavy Load, won the Excellence in Creative Output - Diverse Content award.

Our programmes took up 19 of the 32 nomination slots at the Mind Mental Health Media Awards - a figure which demonstrates the breadth and depth of our programming and highlights the value of the BBC when it comes to educating and informing as well as stimulating debate on some tough issues that might otherwise be overlooked.

This included some for the Newsnight focus on mental health amongst MPs; Alastair Campbell's documentary Cracking Up, part of the BBC Headroom campaign; Radio 4's You and Yours, and the radio drama Dos and Don'ts for the Mentally Interesting.

EastEnders also received the Making a Difference award for the ongoing commitment to mental health issues.

This is one that we should be particularly proud of as it signals that one of our most popular and entertaining dramas is connecting with a whole range of audiences through great character-led storylines and a stream of fresh ideas. Critical to the success of programmes like EastEnders are good stories with well-rounded characters. A sensitive and nuanced portrayal of cultural difference and an avoidance of the stereotypes of old is key.

Get the stories right and believable characters will follow.

Portray difference authentically and viewers will follow.

Authenticity is something our viewers recognise as soon as they see it and it is that which makes them switch on. They expect to see it and so they should.

Stories about mental health can help to educate and inform our audiences. These stories can really get under the skin of issues which some viewers may never have had a connection with, whilst others may immediately recognise and identify with experiences that mirror aspects of their own life.

At the RADAR (the Disability Network) People of the Year Awards last night the BBC also won a number of awards in the area of disability portrayal. These were for Otto: Love, Lust and Las Vegas (BBC Three) and for EastEnders (BBC One), which over the last 12 months has consistently portrayed disability positively.

In some cases disability is merely incidental and in others it is central to the story line, but in all cases it reflects disabled life as it is - no mystique, no stereotypes, just people, who are far more than their impairment - getting on with their lives and facing the barriers society inevitably throws at them.

I believe the success at the RADAR awards can be credited to our renewed focus and effort over the last year to get to grips with portraying disability. The BBC's Disabled Talent Directory was launched in June this year and a number of talent searches have been held around the UK, where we've been meeting aspiring disabled actors and performers.

Are we there yet? Certainly not, but scooping big wins as we have over the last few days does indicate a real step-change, which can only bode well for the future.