Journalist and broadcaster Una Mullally is on a one-woman mission to highlight the lack of women presenting radio programmes in Ireland.
A 10 hour twitter conversation with a handful of radio industry colleagues started off with a single tweet by Una about a shake-up needed at 2fm – presumably fueled by today’s news of Louise McSharry covering mornings next week.
The tweet prompted many replies including one from 2fm presenter Rick O’Shea who said: “Few things more heartwarming than seeing people you like online touting for you to be kicked out of your job…” to which Una responded saying she wasn’t touting for people to be “kicked out” and said the gender balance on 2fm needs to be addressed.
Una went on to say “There are also plenty of real women out there who can’t catch a break due to sexism embedded in the industry.”
RadioToday asked 2fm for a response on the subject, to which Radio Communications Manager Maureen Catterson told us: “It’s not just the presenters who make up the jobs at 2fm – the majority of the producers at the station are women.”
“New manager Dan Healy has recently said he is happy with his current line-up (of mostly men) so I can’t see a shake-up anytime soon,” Maureen continued.
Una also highlighted the lack of women on schedules at Today FM and Newstalk. KC, Today FM host hit back saying “Things have improved so much in the last 10 years with more stations and more opportunities for females,” pointing out that Spin 1038, Spin SouthWest and iRadio all have full time daytime female presenters.
Una is a journalist at the Irish Times and a contributor for several other media outlets including; RTE television, TV3, TG4, RTE Radio One, 2fm, Today FM, Newstalk, Phantom 105.2, 4fm, Spin 103.8, Raidio na Gaeltachta.