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5 women appeared on a quiz show and people thought it was radical

"Blimey -- women on the programme, what's happened here?"

Rachel Thompson

on November 22, 2016

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

LONDON -- If you've ever watched an episode of University Challenge, you might have noticed that the number of male contestants far outweighs the number of females.

During Monday night's show, however, viewers were stunned to see a whopping 5 females participating in the quiz show -- which sees two university teams answer impossibly difficult questions.

Monday night's broadcast saw teams from the University of Warwick and the University of East London battle it out. East London's team featured a three women and one man, while Warwick's team comprised two female contestants and two male contestants.

According to the Guardian, in the quiz show's 54-year history, there has been a total of 16 female winners and 164 male winners -- a figure which equates to 10 men for every woman. In 2015, a mere 25 of the 112 students participating in the show were female. And 13 of the 28 competing teams were all male, and only one team comprised three women and one man.

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Viewers took to social media to express their delight at the sight of five female contestants -- something they deemed a rarity.

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However, some expressed sadness at the mass shock at the rare sight of more female contestants.

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In the past, the BBC has attributed this lack of gender equality on the show to the university selection process rather than part of the show's selection process.

The BBC told the Telegraph in 2015 it would ask universities for greater support to ensure more diversity in the show's contestants. The BBC did not immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment.

Rachel Thompson

Features Editor

Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.

A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.

Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.