University Challenge to introduce ‘gender neutral’ questions after viewer complained not enough were about women
- BBC show’s executive producer Peter Gwyn hopes more women will take part
- He thinks if show is more ‘inclusive and diverse’ it will make it more interesting
- The number of women who take part in the show has also come under scrutiny
University Challenge will introduce ‘gender neutral’ questions so contestants can’t tell whether a man or a woman wrote them.
The BBC show’s executive producer Peter Gwyn said the change was made after a viewer wrote in to complain that not enough questions were about women.
He ‘agreed and decided to rectify it’ in the hope it will encourage more female contestants to take part.
The BBC show’s executive producer Peter Gwyn hopes the change will encourage more female contestants to take part in the popular quiz show
Mr Gwyn thinks the quiz questions ‘should never sound as if they are directed more at men than women’.
‘Perhaps ‘gender-neutrality’ is what we aim for,’ he said.
‘We believe very strongly that the more representative, inclusive and diverse we can make the programme, the better and more interesting it will be.’
This year’s final featured a round on female artists and questions about US author Willa Cather.
Jeremy Paxman, the show’s no-nonsense host
Contestants were also quizzed on Marin Alsop, the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms, and Byzantine historian and princess Anna Komnene.
The number of women who take part in the show has also come under scrutiny.
St Hugh’s College, Oxford, previously faced criticism for fielding four male students on the programme – despite the fact it was originally founded as a women’s college in 1886.
Host Jeremy Paxman remarked live on air: ‘We could be forgiven for thinking they’d [men] rather taken it [St Hugh’s] over’.
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