BAFTA and Emmy-winning producer Ruth Wrigley on how women can succeed in TV
There are so many barriers that hold women back in the workplace. But what if that workplace is TV, and that woman is a working class mother? What are her chances of success then?
If you are Ruth Wrigley, those chances are pretty good! Today Ruth is a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning producer, writer and director. She is responsible for working on, delivering and creating some of TVs most groundbreaking, innovative and genre defining shows including Big Brother, The Only Way Is Essex, How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria and Big Breakfast.
Ruth is a renowned trailblazer and has been at forefront of the broadcast arena for over four decades. Her extensive background in TV has seen her work at All3Media as a key integral creative, been Head of Entertainment Events at the BBC as well as Head of Entertainment and Factual Entertainment at Endemol, Freemantle, Talkback Thames and Celador Productions.
Ruth is an un-matched creative force that is known for her groundbreaking flair for broadcast innovation that has helped shape modern day culture as we know it today.
Ruth may have made succeeding in TV look easy to the outside eye, but her achievements have been hard-won, and are testament to Ruth’s determination and strength of character.
To find out how she did it, and what advice she has for other ambitious working mothers, we interviewed Ruth for an episode of our Get Rich Slow podcast.
Here is what we cover in this episode:
- How Ruth was told being working class would hold back her career
- But how she for her start in TV and climbed the ranks anyway
- How Ruth’s career was going swimmingly…. Until she got pregnant
- How she was told by a man (with kids) that it was impossible to work on TV and have children
- And how, depressingly, those same barriers are still there today – though more hidden
- How women KNOW how to make a career and children work, if only companies would listen to them
- Why Ruth sees it as a positive if a woman has children
- Why you should always employ people who are better than you
- And why you are allowed to love going to work as a mum – and why we need to stop passing on mum guilt
- Why society still judges assertive woman harshly, while celebrating a man’s ‘directness’
- Ruth’s advice for a woman today who wants to pursue a career she loves
Listen to our episode with Ruth Wrigley
You can listen to our episode of the Get Rich Slow podcast with Ruth Wrigley here now!
