The number of organisations meeting the targets of a BBC scheme aiming to achieve 50:50 gender balance among contributors has risen.
The initiative sees the gender of contributors to the organisations’ content tracked in a bid to achieve equal representation between men and women.
Half of the organisations taking part in the initiative met the target in March.
The #5050Project is now a data-driven alliance of more than 100 partners in 26 countries, all striving for one thing, and that’s to create content that better reflects our world.
Find out how the BBC is advancing women’s representation in world media: https://t.co/L8Eji04AXA pic.twitter.com/yfdnM5I373
— BBC Press Office (@bbcpress) April 22, 2021
Only 31% of participants met the target in the first month after they joined the initiative.
More than 100 organisations, including the Financial Times and Australia’s ABC News, have signed up to the scheme.
Within the BBC, 670 teams have signed up to the project, with 70% achieving gender equality in March.
BBC director-general Tim Davie said the initiative “continues to enrich” the broadcaster’s output “with new audiences, helping us to reflect the audiences we serve”.
He added: “With our external partners, we are now also seeing a real impact beyond the BBC on a global scale.
“I encourage any organisations interested in taking up the challenge to get involved.”
Nina Goswami, the BBC’s creative diversity lead for the 50:50 Project and report co-author, said: “The 50:50 partners network publishing our performance data together for the first time sets out our stall as a collective.
“We have given ourselves a benchmark for improvement and a yardstick that others can use to measure our commitment to gender equality.”