University Challenge: Gender Imbalance, Women need to be Encouraged

OK, time for me to be serious, and address a subject that has always been hanging around UC, but has really come to the forefront this past year: gender imbalance.

It all started when the BBC introduced that rule that all light hearted panel shows must have at least one female panelist. Then, it garnered further attention prior to this year's final, when Mary Beard wrote an article online bemoaning the fact that, not only were both the teams all male, but one of them came from a previously women only college.

And, with the rise of Cassiopeia and her excellent UCCrush blog, the subject has been lingering around the discussions online predominantly this series.

As if to prove this: four teams are safely through to the quarter finals; of the sixteen competitors, there is only one female amongst them (Claire Hall of Trinity).

I decided to do a bit of research, and here are my findings on women and UC grand finals:

• Of the twenty BBC grand finals, seven have featured eight males; six have featured one female, five two and two (1997 and 2004) three.
• Only five grand finals have featured at least one woman on both teams.
• Of the forty grand final captains, six have been women; four led their teams to grand final victory (wording deliberate to include Gail the Great)
• The last time both teams had at least one woman was the Alex Guttenplan final of 2010.

So, those are my findings on women in UC grand finals.

Needless to say, of course, a ten man show (Paxo and Roger T. along with eight male competitors) will not go unnoticed on Twitter, usually coupled with some sarky comment about the show being a repeat from the '50s!

So, what's to be done about it? Well, some have suggested a quota similar to the one mentioned earlier that all teams must have at least one woman on board. That would, practically, solve the problem, and ensure that all the shows have at least one woman. But others could see this as political correctness gone mad. Two posters, musicman and Simon Joyce from the Oxford Brookes team, spoke out against a quota, saying it would take tokenism to a huge level.

At the end of the day, UC is a quiz show. Not only that, it's a quiz show competition. The aim is to win; to make this more likely, the university/college will send the strongest team they can put together. Sometimes, this means a team of four men; it could, in some cases, mean a team of four women. It can vary.

There is one thing was can do though: encourage more women to take part. As musicman says, there are generally more men on shows like UC because they are more prepared to put themselves out there, and display their knowledge to the public.

It's hard enough to avoid at least one abusive post on Twitter nowadays as it is; even our own Jim Gratrex got one directed at him following his side's defeating Warwick two years ago today(!). I think a lot of people may get put off by this; there was a chap on the DoND forum who said a few years ago that he didn't apply for the show himself due to not wanting to be abused online, as he would almost certainly lose his temper if he was.

There's another thing that may put women off, and I do not mean any offense at all by bringing this up: objectification.

Just ask Gail the Great and Sarah (Fitzpatrick) Healey, both of whom received requests from lads mags to do a strip shoot for them after leading their respective teams to grand final victory. Both very sensibly declined the invite.

Rather oddly, it was Jeremy Clarkson who summed it up best, when he theorised that there are no female F1 drivers because, the moment a woman steps near an F1 car, they become treated as a sex object. ("I mean when was the last time someone said to Kimi Raikkonen 'would you mind posing in a rd bikini'")

The same could apply to UC: all the Quagmires watching would be after some women on the show endlessly. Just ask poor Marine Debray, who was on the show back in 2010 and received a lot of unwelcome attention from lecherous men following her team's only match.

I mean, objectification is just simply unacceptable no matter what the context. A lot of the women who consider applying for UC could be quiet and private individuals, and getting bombarded with lecherous comments online and receiving requests to strip by lads mags would just scare them off altogether. I mean, have we had women's mags asking Ralph Morley to show us his abs after last year's final?! No, we haven't! Women should stop being objectified just because they are attractive and clever at the same time; it's just disgraceful.

Sorry, I got a bit carried away there. The point I'm making is that women need to be encouraged to try out for UC. And there are many factors out there that may stop them from doing so.

Gender imbalance on UC is unfortunate, but there isn't a legitimate way that would increase the numbers of women who compete. Women need to be encouraged to give the show a go, and brush off any ludicrous attention they may receive as a result. After all, it's only a quiz show.

I'll be back on Monday with my usual UC write-up; no word on the draw yet, but we're all keeping an eye out.