This working paper focuses on women in leadership roles in the Entertainment Department of BBC North, based at New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road, Manchester and subsequently at Media City UK. In so doing, it considers the role of the department’s founder, Janet Street-Porter, and her leadership of the then Youth Programmes department in the late 80s/early 90s. Drawing on interviews with six women professionals who worked either during or just after Street-Porter’s leadership and scholarship on women in the UK media industry, this paper considers some of the reasons why this environment proved so fertile for our interviewees. We also reflect on some of the key issues the interviews provoked: the issue of balancing motherhood with a career in the UK television industry, the importance of women’s networks, and the impact of class in terms of working in the BBC. In this sense, the BBC was formative for our interviewees, particularly through the leadership of an ‘outsider’ like Street-Porter despite structural issues of exclusion that remained present in the organisation.

这份工作文件主要关注在 BBC North 娱乐部门担任领导职务的女性，该部门位于曼彻斯特牛津路的新广播大楼，随后位于英国媒体城。在这样做的过程中，它考虑了部门创始人珍妮特街波特的角色，以及她在 80 年代末/90 年代初对当时青年项目部门的领导。本文通过对在 Street-Porter 担任英国媒体行业女性领导和学术研究期间或之后工作的六位女性专业人士的采访，探讨了为什么这种环境对我们的受访者来说如此肥沃的一些原因。我们还反思了采访引发的一些关键问题：平衡母亲与英国电视行业职业的问题，女性网络的重要性，以及班级对在 BBC 工作的影响。从这个意义上说，BBC 对我们的受访者起到了塑造作用，特别是通过像 Street-Porter 这样的“局外人”的领导，尽管该组织中仍然存在结构性排斥问题。