Executive Summary 2022

50:50 The Equality Project uses diversity monitoring and data to drive cultural change across the BBC and in other organisations. The aim is to ensure that the content we all create and consume better reflects the world around us.

Starting as a grassroots initiative in the BBC’s London newsroom in 2017, 50:50 soon became the corporation’s biggest ever collective action to increase women’s representation on air. To date, 750 BBC teams and 145 partner organisations in 30 countries have adopted the simple, self-monitoring system to ensure gender-balanced content. More than 250 BBC teams have now also committed to monitoring the representation of disability and ethnicity in their content.

In March 2022 the BBC held its fourth annual 50:50 Challenge, set by the Director-General Tim Davie, to see how many teams could achieve fair representation of women, disabled and black, Asian and minority ethnic contributors.

Shortly before the start of Challenge Month, Russia invaded Ukraine. News and Factual programming were focused on one story. The majority were still able to achieve gender balance in their content. At the BBC, 61% of datasets featured 50% women contributors in March, compared to 35% when they first started.

For the first time the BBC has also published its progress on disability and ethnicity representation, in support of the corporation’s 50:20:12 aim – that is, to reach 50% women, 20% black, Asian and minority ethnic, and 12% disabled representation in its content and its workforce.

Of those monitoring since the project expanded beyond gender in October 2020, 65% of datasets achieved their targets for ethnicity representation. Some 53% achieved their targets for disability representation – up from 18% doing so when they first started.

Whilst there is some way to go to achieve fair representation for all, this report evidences how 50:50 has embedded diversity monitoring at the BBC, and how this is changing the way teams think about who we see and hear from in our output.

Beyond the BBC, the 50:50 global partner network continues to grow. More than 70 external organisations took part in the 50:50 Challenge in March 2022, up from 41 in 2021. Of those who were below 50% women when they joined the project, 73% have seen an improvement. Overall, 47% of organisations featured at least 50% women in their content, up from 32% doing so in their first month of monitoring.

50:50 The Equality Project supports the BBC in fulfilling its responsibility to reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities across the UK. Its continued expansion within the organisation and externally evidences the ongoing commitment of the BBC and 50:50 partner organisations worldwide to improve representation across the creative industries and beyond.