A shocking review of the top 100 programmes on Apple’s iTunes podcast chart reveals that just 21 per cent of podcasts are female-led and just one per cent is content for, or about, the LGBT+ community.
The iTunes chart is male dominated with the majority of programmes featured in the top 100 podcasts being presented by men or featuring male-dominated panels, when checked on the 24th November 2018.
Women-only shows accounted for 16 per cent of the shows in iTunes’ podcast chart, while female-dominated, that is shows that also featured a man in the presenting role, accounted for just 5 per cent.
There was just one LGBT+ podcast, which was a show focussing on the experiences of people who had been subjected to “gay-cure” therapy. Two other podcasts were presented by out members of the LGBT+ community including Stephen Fry and Anna Richardson.
Around 18 per cent of podcasts were equally presented, meaning that there was a 50/50 or near equal split of male/female presenters on the shows.
Comedy and Sports Male-Dominated
Practically all comedy shows were presented or featured men only.
The top 10 podcasts were, with just two exceptions, the Guardian‘s Today In Focus and the BBC‘s Desert Island Discs, all presented by cis-gender men or featured male-dominated panels.
The top female presented show was the Guardian‘s daily Today In Focus, presented by Anushka Asthana, which is a show to “bring you closer to Guardian journalism”.
The second female-fronted show was Lauren Lavern’s Desert Island Discs produced by the BBC.
Here’s how the top 100 podcasts were presented.
MALE IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIII
FEMALE IIIII IIIII IIIII I
MALE DOMINATED IIIII IIIII II
EQUAL IIIII IIIII IIIII III
FEMALE DOMINATED IIIII
LGBT I
Further down the chart, there was more LGBT+ content, including Savage Lovecast (163) RuPaul’s What’s The Tee (199) and Graham Norton Podcast (200)
Featured by Apple
When it comes to finding out new shows, Apple’s “New and Noteworthy” section offered potential listeners a 50/50 spread between men and women presented podcasts.
