Here’s a key task for the new boss at the BBC: solve the mystery of all the disappearing women | Anne McElvoy

A report detailing how the careers of female presenters are curtailed should be a clarion call. The problem has endured for too long

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s the BBC closes in on a new director general, the possibility again arises that it could be a woman. The talk is of the former BBC One controller Jay Hunt, the former Channel 4 boss Alex Mahon or the former BBC chief content officer Charlotte Moore.

At this point in the BBC’s history, almost everyone would applaud a woman at the top – but clearly the institution needs a lot more than a woman, however pioneering and accomplished, at the helm. We know from the excoriating report commissioned by the broadcaster itself that it has a grave problem with dwindling numbers of “older women” presenters. Trevor Phillips, 72, still shines at Sky, while David Aaronovitch, 71, is deservedly a fixture on Radio 4: they’re just older men, experienced journalists, doing their thing.

But women are different, it seems – especially after midlife, according to the report, with a “noticeable mismatch” at the BBC in the treatment of women over 60 in news, in content more broadly and in regional broadcasting (so pretty much everything).