I'll have a go but refer to original for definitive version. Emma Mulqueeny (http://mulqueeny.wordpress.com/about/ http://mulqueeny.wordpress.com/about/) works

I'll have a go but refer to original for definitive version. Emma Mulqueeny (http://mulqueeny.wordpress.com/about/ http://mulqueeny.wordpress.com/about/) works on encouraging children to code in particular girls. Women's Hour was planning a section about activities to encourage girls to code and invited Emma to contribute. She was later uninvited. She then discovered: 1) That both participants would be men, both involved in programming for kids but only one with particular emphasis in supporting women/girls. 2) The reason she was dropped was that they wanted men. 3) This is Women's Hour and she was dropped for being a woman. Being turned down for being the wrong gender is not good in any scenario, being turned down by the Equal Opportunities committed BBC especially on Women's Hour for being a women has the potential to be quite gutting. Edit: My speculation: From the perspective of the Producers every story needs an 'angle' and they seem to have gone for one about how some men are working to help women into tech. This may have been decided after the initial invite to Emma Mulqueeny and led to the invite being withdrawn. I don't know the process for finding guests but it probably involves junior researchers ringing round lots of potentially relevant people. At the very least the invite should have been more tentative and the dropping better handled. My feeling is that not having a woman both as an example of a woman in tech and to vouch that there are men helping girls and women into tech would have strengthened the section but I'm not a radio producer or in the main target demographic for Women's Hour so offer the view very tentatively. In my first post I just provided background for those less familiar with Radio 4 but no comment on the story itself but you have drawn me into expressing a view. Edit2: Women on TV and Radio was the topic of BBC Radio 4's Media Show this week: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dv9hq http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dv9hq