Bruce: 'TV newswomen must scrub up well'

Fiona Bruce has acknowledged that there is a double standard concerning the appearance of male and female newsreaders.

The BBC News At Ten presenter told The Guardian that the gender inequality is unlikely to change in the near future.

Bruce said: "You can't look like the back end of a bus, and you do have to scrub up quite well. But do you have to be a beauty? No. Do you have to pay more attention to your appearance than the blokes do? Yes.

"If you look like the back end of the bus, as a woman you won't get the job. If you look like the back end of a bus as a bloke, you might get the job. 'Twas ever thus, and I can't see it changing in my lifetime."

Regarding her self-definition as a feminist, she added: "To me it's always been a no-brainer. Maybe I'm just simplistic about it, but if you believe in equality of opportunity, and want to champion equality of opportunity, that makes you a feminist.

"I talk about feminism being a spectrum. People are more than two-dimensional, and again I think the complexities in life, and in one's makeup, grow as you get older, partly through experience."

Last year, Bruce predicted that she would one day be "quietly dropped" from a programme because of her appearance.