The British would rather talk about sex and death than how much they earn, so Carrie Gracie broke taboos when she decided to go public with her battle over equal pay at the BBC, that most British of organisations. Part instruction manual, part howl of rage, Equal tells a personal story that changed the public debate.
Nearly 50 years after equal pay was first enshrined in UK law, there are still too many instances where women are paid less, not just when they work flexibly or in lower paid jobs but when they do the same job. The fact that this illegal behaviour takes place at the BBC, where Gracie had worked successfully for 30 years, fuels a sense of fury.
Having made equal pay a requirement of her posting as China editor to Beijing, she finds out just how much more the BBC pays Jon Sopel, the North American editor in July 2017, when the corporation is forced to reveal by the Royal Charter the employees paid more than £150,000. Sopel is paid between £230,000 and £239,000; Gracie isn’t even on the list.
Her shock at the behaviour of the BBC, an organisation she obviously cherishes, gives her story the feel of a personal betrayal but, as she points out, if a great organisation can do this to her – an award-winning, Oxbridge-educated, well-paid white woman – what about everybody else?
Pay is complex, but the BBC does not cover itself in glory in this saga. Gracie’s “long and careful emails” go unheeded, her hours and profile are questioned and she says the experience was worse than her treatment for cancer.
At times the situation becomes Kafkaesque. Gracie is told she cannot record a grievance hearing and is then locked in a series of frustrating, debilitating battles over what was actually said. “How can I trust you?” she says of an organisation which needs more than ever to be trusted. At one point, the BBC HR department blames the fact Gracie was in “growth and development” for the pay discrepancy. “Like Ginger Rogers, I did everything the North America editor did except backwards and in high heels – in this case not literally but in Mandarin and with a police state at my back.”
I played a small and unwitting role in this battle on the day Gracie went public, when members of the supportive network of BBC Women such as Jane Garvey were not allowed to interview her and so I was called to do so instead.
There are typically more men called John in senior positions at the BBC than women and two in particular – John Humphrys and Jon Sopel – are criticised in this book. But there are moments of warmth and humour as well as rage. When a senior executive asks to come to her house, Gracie flies into a panic, rushing to hide the washing-up – and her son. “Imagine the home of a single parent locked in a long battle with her employer and suffering depression as a result. That’s what my house looked like,” she writes.
The BBC finally agree to pay Gracie £361,000 in back pay, a sum she donates to the Fawcett Society to set up an equal pay advice service. The fact that she wrote this book in six months of unpaid leave confirms that this is not about her getting more money, but about making the entire system fair and transparent.
The book is full of advice for others – there is a separate section at the end for employers, men and women. And there are signs of change. On the day Gracie goes public with her fight, she is presenting the Today programme, which discusses the #MeToo movement in Hollywood and gender balance in parliament. “Almost every story resonated with mine,” she realises. Now back in her old job presenting on BBC News, her decision to use her personal story for the public good has put the issue of equal pay firmly on the agenda. Her final piece of advice? “Like talking about other delicate subjects, like sex or death, it gets easier the more you try.”
• Equal is published by Virago (£18.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
