Ada Lovelace Day

A few weeks ago I signed a pledge to publish a blog post today about a woman in technology who I admire. I’ve never signed a pledge before, but I felt this one was important because I believe women need to hear about good female role models. I’ve had a great deal of difficulty with this, only because it was so difficult picking just one. After considerable deliberation, I opted for a very contemporary figure who has accomplished some remarkable things in her career.

My blog post is about one of the most influential women in television. Until recently, she was the BBC Controller of Fiction, responsible for all drama across the four BBC channels. In that role, she had an annual budget worth half a billion. In 2008, MediaGuardian listed her at number 10 of the 100 most powerful people in UK media. Her name is Jane Tranter. As of January this year, she became executive vice-president of programming and production for BBC Worldwide. And she only just turned 46!

Jane Tranter started her TV career in 1985, she soon started working as an assistant floor manager on Eastenders and as a script writer for a series of Casualty. She did a spell working for Carlton, but rejoined the BBC in 1997, first as executive producer in films and single dramas, then soon after, Head of Drama Serials.

In 2000, after only 15 years in television, she became BBC Controller of Fiction. Her talent and vision saw her bringing back drama that excelled to the BBC. She is the woman who commissioned the rebirth of Dr Who, and she did this despite market research which said people didn’t want Dr Who back on their screens. That sort of conviction takes real courage. And it wasn’t just Dr Who she commissioned; other enormously successful dramas include Spooks, Bleak House, Life on Mars and Cranford (all of which I loved), amongst many others.

At the beginning of this year, she moved to BBC Worldwide. She has definitely not lost any of her ambition in doing so. She has already put forward an idea for a programme, involving at least 12 countries, which will launch simultaneously in all those countries and be both global and national. Wow!

What impresses me almost more than anything else is that, whilst she is a woman who has had immense success in her career, she hasn’t let it turn her head. In fact, if you listen to her talk, she is a very personable, humorous, animated person. She is also happy to make her views plain on the perceptions of women in high profile positions. In an interview with Sophie Balhetchet, she said,

“There is something still, somewhere within our culture, if a woman is in a position of any significance at all, instead of becoming powerful or successful, she becomes a power-crazed bitch. Instead of having a good work ethic, she becomes relentlessly, vaultingly ambitious. Instead of it being about diversity, it’s about a takeover of women and I do think it’s odd, I have to say”.

Well done, Jane Tranter, you’re a role model us women can be really proud of!