Good Morning Britain’sSusanna Reid reached out to a guest speaker to apologise after producers made a major technical error on the show.
Professor Devi Sridhar, who is the Chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University, was one of the many experts who appeared on the show and took part in the lengthy discussion about Covid-19.
But the expert was the only one who appeared on screen without her medical title, and it wasn’t lost on viewers that she also the only female on the panel.
When she appeared on the show, her banner simply read Devi Sridhar while her male counterparts all had their Professor titles before their name.
While watching the show, a wave of viewers shared their thoughts on the technical error which many put down to “unconscious misogyny.”
One user wrote: “This is one of those subtle examples of misogyny that most don’t notice. But it’s exactly these small, possibly unconscious, differences in how men and women are treated that normalise the bigger differences. It snowballs.”
A second questioned: “Or maybe it’s simply oversight? Are there other examples which might show it is only women whom this error has occurred?” as a third replied with: “3 men all had professor before their name. The 1 lady professor didn’t.”
Elsewhere, another fan of the show argued: “They choose to do this, if we correct them we are ‘petty’ but if we don’t then they get away with misrepresenting & disrespecting women & their achievements.
“Never used to worry about titles etc, still do not wish to, but forced into it by their selective usage by the powers that be.”
Professor Devi later raised the point and called out the news station when a fan shared the surprising news with her on Twitter.
The medical expert shared a post sent to her from a fan which asked: “When are the media gonna stop doing this? @GMB” to which she added: “Can women be professors in 20201?” with a confused emoji.
Just moments later, host Susanna saw the technical error after the show aired and reached out to the professor online to send her apologies.
She penned: “I am really sorry that this happened. We introduced you with your Professor but inexplicably it wasn’t on screen.”
Luckily Professor Devi graciously accepted her apology and replied to her tweet, writing: “Innocent mistake – thanks always Susanna.”
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