Eight out of 10 guests and presenters on 'Today' programme are men, complains minister He said a lot of women were forced simply to "abandon the radio industry at the age of about 35" because of the lack of career opportunities. Mr Vaizey said he would arrange a meeting between Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, and Tory MP Nadine Dorries who had organised the debate to discuss the concerns. Earlier Ms Dorries had told him if a female presenter is away on "Today" - which has seven million listeners - "one can go two whole hours in the morning when listening to the Today programme without a single female voice and have male voices speaking at you throughout all that time." She was amazed that some septuagenarian broadcasters still worked at the BBC. She said: "Some of them are in their 70s and still in primetime spots, yet those women have been consigned to the graveyard. "If the BBC placed a banner on top of Broadcasting House and wrote on it: "The BBC does not believe that women deserve to be represented on BBC radio," that banner would be 100 per cent accurate." Ms Dorries said she was appalled that Radio 1 DJ "the amazing Annie Nightingale" had been shunted to presenting "one programme, one night a week, from 2 til 4am." She added: "Jo Wiley is on Radio 2 three nights a week from 8 til 9.30pm. That is as good as it gets. Ms Dorries continued that Vanessa Feltz was now broadcasting from 5am til 6.30am and Liz Kershaw, another DJ, had one programme on 6Music on Saturday afternoons. She said: "It is frankly amazing that Annie, Liz, Vanessa and Jo have kept hold of their jobs at all, because we all know what the BBC attitude is to women of a certain age." Ms Dorries claimed that Ms Feltz was only given her slot after an outcry over the way the previous incumbent - Sarah Kennedy - was "harassed out of her Radio 2 early morning slot in the most appalling way after 17 years of service." The problem was also prevalent on television where "it would appear that in the minds of TV bosses the viewing public only enjoy watching ageing male hosts accompanied by young blonde females." She cited the examples of Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly, who present "Strictly Come Dancing" and Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, from ITV's "This Morning." A BBC spokesman said: "Women of all ages feature prominently throughout the BBC's schedules on radio and television. There is of course always more we can do to improve gender balance and it is an issue we take seriously.