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| Sky’s Sophy Ridge: ‘We’re at a tipping point with women in politics’ | Sky’s Sophy Ridge: ‘We’re at a tipping point with women in politics’ |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| When Sophy Ridge had just started as a political reporter, one male MP asked if she worked on her newspaper’s fashion desk. Another time, someone at the Labour party conference mistook her for a weather presenter. Just the “sort of stories that [every female political journalist] has”, she says with a smile. “I think you need to have quite a thick skin.” | When Sophy Ridge had just started as a political reporter, one male MP asked if she worked on her newspaper’s fashion desk. Another time, someone at the Labour party conference mistook her for a weather presenter. Just the “sort of stories that [every female political journalist] has”, she says with a smile. “I think you need to have quite a thick skin.” |
| This was 10 years ago and although many things have improved for women in Westminster – not least last month when the female prime minister gave her first interview of the year on Ridge’s new eponymous Sunday morning politics programme on Sky News – there are still plenty of reminders that women in political life face huge, new challenges. | This was 10 years ago and although many things have improved for women in Westminster – not least last month when the female prime minister gave her first interview of the year on Ridge’s new eponymous Sunday morning politics programme on Sky News – there are still plenty of reminders that women in political life face huge, new challenges. |
| We meet in a cafe at the Sky News Millbank studios across the road from parliament, in the week that the racist and sexist abuse of the Labour MP Diane Abbott reached abhorrent lows. Countless other female MPs have reported rape threats and other misogynistic abuse in the last year. “I think social media is a new challenge,” says Ridge. “There is some pretty ugly stuff ... and obviously that can be quite frightening for a lot of women MPs but also women in the public eye more generally. I’m not sure what the answer is.” | |
| The abuse of Abbott, she says, is about trying to silence her and other women. “And the worst thing we can do as women is to allow them to win by being silenced. I think it goes back to having a thick skin, calling stuff out when it is unacceptable but also trying not to fixate too much on the loudest voices.” | The abuse of Abbott, she says, is about trying to silence her and other women. “And the worst thing we can do as women is to allow them to win by being silenced. I think it goes back to having a thick skin, calling stuff out when it is unacceptable but also trying not to fixate too much on the loudest voices.” |
| Ridge has received misogynistic tweets “in the same way that anyone who has a public profile and is on Twitter will get stuff that is quite unpleasant, but the vast majority of contact I have with social media is overwhelmingly positive. I think it’s important not to lose perspective.” | Ridge has received misogynistic tweets “in the same way that anyone who has a public profile and is on Twitter will get stuff that is quite unpleasant, but the vast majority of contact I have with social media is overwhelmingly positive. I think it’s important not to lose perspective.” |
| But women shouldn’t have to have a thick skin to do their jobs, should they? “I don’t disagree at all. Where MPs have called it out [it] has been successful, and there have obviously been cases where the police get involved and that’s got to be the right thing to do.” | But women shouldn’t have to have a thick skin to do their jobs, should they? “I don’t disagree at all. Where MPs have called it out [it] has been successful, and there have obviously been cases where the police get involved and that’s got to be the right thing to do.” |
| Getting Theresa May for the debut of Sophy Ridge on Sunday – the presenter and her colleague Esme Wren, Sky’s head of politics, had gone to No 10 to pitch for it – was a strong statement of intent, she says, proving “you’re not just the little sister of the other political shows”. Some said the decision to give an interview to Sky was a deliberate snub to the BBC. Ridge laughs. “I like to think it’s because of my show, but maybe that’s just me.” | Getting Theresa May for the debut of Sophy Ridge on Sunday – the presenter and her colleague Esme Wren, Sky’s head of politics, had gone to No 10 to pitch for it – was a strong statement of intent, she says, proving “you’re not just the little sister of the other political shows”. Some said the decision to give an interview to Sky was a deliberate snub to the BBC. Ridge laughs. “I like to think it’s because of my show, but maybe that’s just me.” |
| May was as tight-lipped as she always is, though Ridge pressed the prime minister on Brexit, finishing the interview by asking her how she felt about President Donald Trump’s boast – and she reminded the prime minister exactly what he said – that he could “grab [women] by the pussy”. | May was as tight-lipped as she always is, though Ridge pressed the prime minister on Brexit, finishing the interview by asking her how she felt about President Donald Trump’s boast – and she reminded the prime minister exactly what he said – that he could “grab [women] by the pussy”. |
| They are words you never want to hear from the mouths of her Sunday morning rivals Andrew Marr or Robert Peston. It was quite brave of her (for her part, May was impressively stonyfaced). “You don’t want to make it sound gratuitous in any way but for me as a feminist, I think if you don’t look at exactly what he said, it’s almost like letting him off the hook. I think it was quite important to go for it. Try not to look down.” | They are words you never want to hear from the mouths of her Sunday morning rivals Andrew Marr or Robert Peston. It was quite brave of her (for her part, May was impressively stonyfaced). “You don’t want to make it sound gratuitous in any way but for me as a feminist, I think if you don’t look at exactly what he said, it’s almost like letting him off the hook. I think it was quite important to go for it. Try not to look down.” |
| Growing up in south London, where both her parents were teachers, Ridge says with a laugh that they didn’t even have a television until she was 13 and it wasn’t a particularly “newsy” household (now, though, she’s married to another journalist). | Growing up in south London, where both her parents were teachers, Ridge says with a laugh that they didn’t even have a television until she was 13 and it wasn’t a particularly “newsy” household (now, though, she’s married to another journalist). |
| Ridge started her political career at the News of the World where she was a trainee reporter, moving to Sky as a political correspondent in 2011 a few months before the paper closed following the phone-hacking scandal. Marr was in his late forties, and his predecessor, David Frost, and Peston, were both in their fifties when they got their own politics shows; Ridge is 32. | Ridge started her political career at the News of the World where she was a trainee reporter, moving to Sky as a political correspondent in 2011 a few months before the paper closed following the phone-hacking scandal. Marr was in his late forties, and his predecessor, David Frost, and Peston, were both in their fifties when they got their own politics shows; Ridge is 32. |
| She watches Marr’s and Peston’s shows when she can, “but I’m not someone who will watch religiously and take notes, because the whole point is that we’re trying to be a bit different. I could never be like Andrew Marr, or like Robert Peston. You have to try to find your own voice and try not to worry too much about what everyone else is doing.” | She watches Marr’s and Peston’s shows when she can, “but I’m not someone who will watch religiously and take notes, because the whole point is that we’re trying to be a bit different. I could never be like Andrew Marr, or like Robert Peston. You have to try to find your own voice and try not to worry too much about what everyone else is doing.” |
| The set on her show, for instance, doesn’t have the borderline-uncomfortable intimacy of Marr’s, or the more relaxed hipster Travelodge style of Peston’s. Instead, sparse and bright, with Ridge facing her subjects across a desk, it’s more an interrogation-room approach to set design. | The set on her show, for instance, doesn’t have the borderline-uncomfortable intimacy of Marr’s, or the more relaxed hipster Travelodge style of Peston’s. Instead, sparse and bright, with Ridge facing her subjects across a desk, it’s more an interrogation-room approach to set design. |
| She says the three shows are different – Peston has “the croissant thing going on”, Marr is “part of the fabric of British television”. And she points out that it’s such an interesting time in politics, there are enough guests to go around. Sky is never going to compete on ratings – on a recent Sunday, Marr pulled in 1.4 million viewers and Peston 300,000 (Sky News did not provide figures for Ridge, who goes up against Peston on ITV, but it will be fewer). | She says the three shows are different – Peston has “the croissant thing going on”, Marr is “part of the fabric of British television”. And she points out that it’s such an interesting time in politics, there are enough guests to go around. Sky is never going to compete on ratings – on a recent Sunday, Marr pulled in 1.4 million viewers and Peston 300,000 (Sky News did not provide figures for Ridge, who goes up against Peston on ITV, but it will be fewer). |
| There is an emphasis on social media, and Ridge hosts a Facebook Live stream after each show. “It’s more of a dialogue [with viewers] than perhaps some of the traditional political shows.” There is also an effort to get out of London. “If there’s a lesson from the last year, there is a bit of a London bubble and journalists are also part of that bubble – a lot of journalists live and work in London and talk to people who live and work in London. I think we have a responsibility to go round and make sure we are reflecting the views of different parts of the UK.” | There is an emphasis on social media, and Ridge hosts a Facebook Live stream after each show. “It’s more of a dialogue [with viewers] than perhaps some of the traditional political shows.” There is also an effort to get out of London. “If there’s a lesson from the last year, there is a bit of a London bubble and journalists are also part of that bubble – a lot of journalists live and work in London and talk to people who live and work in London. I think we have a responsibility to go round and make sure we are reflecting the views of different parts of the UK.” |
| Sky News hasn’t always seemed like the most progressive of channels – last month, one of its presenters Stephen Dixon asked if women who were drunk and wearing a short skirt were partially responsible if they were sexually assaulted. Is there a reliance on deliberately controversial gendered “debates”? | Sky News hasn’t always seemed like the most progressive of channels – last month, one of its presenters Stephen Dixon asked if women who were drunk and wearing a short skirt were partially responsible if they were sexually assaulted. Is there a reliance on deliberately controversial gendered “debates”? |
| “I can’t really see that in Sky at all,” says Ridge. “If I look at the stuff I’ve been able to do, it’s been massively pro-women. We’ve made a huge effort to increase the number of female experts and MPs on screen and I think we’ve made real progress towards the target. We’ve got a lot of female presenters on screen too.” | “I can’t really see that in Sky at all,” says Ridge. “If I look at the stuff I’ve been able to do, it’s been massively pro-women. We’ve made a huge effort to increase the number of female experts and MPs on screen and I think we’ve made real progress towards the target. We’ve got a lot of female presenters on screen too.” |
| She describes Kay Burley as “a big role model, who proves that you can have a long career [in broadcasting] as a woman. It’s something you have to keep an eye on, clearly, and I think with having kids, that can be a bit of a time when some women can drop out or slow down. I can only speak from my experience in broadcasting, which has been positive and supportive.” | She describes Kay Burley as “a big role model, who proves that you can have a long career [in broadcasting] as a woman. It’s something you have to keep an eye on, clearly, and I think with having kids, that can be a bit of a time when some women can drop out or slow down. I can only speak from my experience in broadcasting, which has been positive and supportive.” |
| The abuse, says Ridge, is “depressing” but she feels more positive about women in politics. “It is actually quite incredible how far we’ve come in what I think is a relatively short space of time – we’ve got a second female prime minister, we’ve got female leaders in Scotland and Northern Ireland. I think that’s something to be celebrated. I feel that at the moment we’re at a bit of a tipping point and we need to keep pushing.” | The abuse, says Ridge, is “depressing” but she feels more positive about women in politics. “It is actually quite incredible how far we’ve come in what I think is a relatively short space of time – we’ve got a second female prime minister, we’ve got female leaders in Scotland and Northern Ireland. I think that’s something to be celebrated. I feel that at the moment we’re at a bit of a tipping point and we need to keep pushing.” |
| CV | CV |
| Age: 32 | Age: 32 |
| Education: Tiffin girls’ school; St Edmund Hall, Oxford | Education: Tiffin girls’ school; St Edmund Hall, Oxford |
| Career: 2007, trainee at News of the World; 2011, political correspondent, Sky; 2015, made senior political correspondent; 2017, presenter of Sophy Ridge on Sunday | Career: 2007, trainee at News of the World; 2011, political correspondent, Sky; 2015, made senior political correspondent; 2017, presenter of Sophy Ridge on Sunday |
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