SEXIST WHO?

 It has often been said that Doctor Who was male chauvinistic, sexist even, definitely not PC. Whilst the heroic, male, Doctor did his stuff defeating monsters all over the universe, his female companions tended to run away or cower in corners - and all of them screamed at one time or another. They were all, as some sources claimed, young, pretty and half-naked. Excuse me! Apart from Peri's one appearance in a bikini (which she needed for going swimming in) and Leela's chamois leather mini-dress, all the girls remained respectfully dressed at all times. As for pretty, well, most of the actresses tended to be of the "girl-next-door" type as British TV, unlike its counterpart in Hollywood, tends to employ actresses on acting ability rather than looks, which is how Katy Manning and not the more glamourous Yutte Stensgaard was cast as Jo and why Jacqueline Hill was chosen to play Barbara instead of Susan Hampshire. And young? Barbara had to be in her thirties whilst Romana was well over a hundred!
Then again, we have to remember the male companions. Were they all prime examples of rugged masculinity? Ian may well have been but after him they all tended to be a bit wet. Steven was a berk, Ben was a diamond cockney geezer who wouldn't've looked out of place propping up the bar in the Queen Vic, Jamie was an over-enthusiastic teenager in a kilt, Harry made Austin Powers look accomplished, Adric was an annoying geek and Turlough was just wierd. Only the UNIT semi-regulars came out of it with any self-respect.
On a whole, however, the show did have a tendency to be sexist, which is surprising considering the first producer was a woman. Just watch some of the episodes and weigh up the gender balances. With the exception of Galaxy Four, Planet of the Spiders and The Brain of Morbius, every story is male dominated. In some the only females present are those the Doctor brought with him. Neither Mission to the Unknown or The Deadly Assassin featured any female characters. In one respect that is one of Doctor Who's little idiosyncracies - a reflection of society at large. The decision to take on Ace as Mel's replacement rather than the more traditional Ray was a conscious effort to re-align the show's political correctness, and undoubtedly caused the drop in its popularity. Note how in the 1996 American pilot the character of Grace is modelled along more traditional lines. Maybe if Ray had replaced Mel in Delta and the Bannermen, Doctor Who would've maintained its popularity and lasted a bit longer. Then again, the BBC was a hotbed of PC by then and hated Doctor Who anyway, so it probably wouldn't've made much difference.
So how sexist was Doctor Who? Was it really as bad as some think? Does it really matter?

Humans:- generally we get to see both sexes whenever humans are encountered. Usually though the males are in charge, leaving the females to do the menial jobs, such as making the coffee, basic secretarial duties and screaming.

Daleks:- inside each Dalek is a mutated lifeform. They must mate to reproduce, unless they use test-tube technology, which means there must be female Daleks. So where are they?

Thals:- well, females definitely, but very much subservient to the males and dressed to please.

Voords:- we only see a small attack force of these rubber-suited aliens, which are all male. Presumably there must be female Voords waiting patiently at home - in rubber suits?

Sensorites:- we only ever encounter male Sensorites. Are the females similarly bald and bearded? Do they also wear peculiar footwear?

Didonians:- we only see two males. Are there any female survivors?

Menoptera:- at last, the female of the species. But if they're insects, how come the males are the dominant sex?

Zarbi:- impossible to tell what sex these are. If they're insects of the Hymenoptera family then there has to be a giant-sized Queen Zarbi somewhere.

Moroks/Xerons:- all those soldiers and not a single female Morok to run the staff canteen.

Aridians:- we never see any female Aridians. If they're all dead it's no wonder the race is facing extinction!

Drahvins:- all female, so presumably the males are sat at home being subservient. Or maybe it's just one of those Fifties-style role reversal scenarios that some male writers enjoy.

Rills:- male, of course. After all he was the good guy.

The Dalek Alliance:- come on! What are the chances of gathering together representatives of species from all over the Universe and every one being male?

Monoids:- again, only males are encountered. I suppose the females wile away the hours laying eggs and colouring their hair.

Elders/Savages:- typical human gender distribution, the men in charge, the women screaming.

Cybermen:- are they really all male? What about Cyberwomen? Or were the original creators so sexist they insisted on everyone having male bodies? Then again, they kept changing their outfits, so maybe they were women after all! Either that or they had a deal with a manufacturer of replica Cybermen kits. Also, have you noticed that the only woman to appear in the first two Cybermen stories (which are virtually identical) was Polly? And she arrived in the Tardis!

Macra:- hard to tell if these are male or female.

Chameleons:- almost human so there are females. Mind you, without faces it would be difficult to have a Miss Chameleon contest! How do they breathe?

Ice Warriors:- every one a male. Are we expected to believe that every female Ice Warrior is happy to stay at home to look after the eggs?

Dominators:- both examples we see are male. As they're humanoid, the females are probably back home being dominated.

Dulcians:- usual human gender pattern (see Elders/Savages) with an interesting line in fashion. Whilst an elderly male Dulcian might get away with wearing a toga, can you imagine what an elderly female Dulcian looks like in a red cossie?

Gonds:- an attempt at equality by having a representative from both sexes chosen "to serve the Krotons". However, as usual, it is very much the men in charge.

War Lords:- not a single female seen anywhere. Those who remember Maggie Thatcher know only too well how some women enjoy warfare.

Nestenes:- no gender mentioned. Probably hermaphrodites.

Silurians:- ah, yes, the once dominant species on Earth - with not a single female in sight! No wonder they lost out.

Ambassadors of Death:- of course all these are male. Wouldn't occur to anybody to send females on such an important mission, would it?

Axons:- males AND females. But then they're only parts of a whole made to look like humans. Do the monsters retain the genders of the species they copy?

Primitives:- a once superior race now reduced to savagery. How do they survive without females?

Daemons:- there had to be female Daemons, though they'd've had to wear something more substantial than a pair of furry trousers if they expected to be taken seriously.

Ogrons:- all those brutish males. Not a single female Ogron anywhere, not even on their home planet!

Aggedor:- male. More than likely to be female specimens somewhere.

Alpha Centauri:- hermaphroditic apparently. So why does the Doctor always refer to it as "He"?

Arcturus:- see Daleks.

Sea Devils:- the Master awakens an entire colony of Sea Devils and not one of them is female? Would they look anymore attractive in a string vest?

Solonians:- go on then, how many female Solonians did you spot? Mind you, there's a definite scarcity of female personnel on board Skybase as well.

Officials & Functionaries:- all male. Of course!

Draconians:- okay, so we know females are very much second-class citizens in Draconian society, which explains why we don't see any in the scenes set on Draconia. Presumably they're all safely tucked away out of sight raising the hatchlings. Bit like Taliban Afghanistan!

Sontarans:- all male. But then they're all supposed to be asexual clones. So why is every Sontaran refered to as "He"?

Exxilons:- are we expected to believe that every one of these is male? How do they keep the species going?

Giant Spiders:- all female, as expected. The males are undoubtedly eaten after mating, so it's no wonder we don't get to see any!

Wirrn:- at last! Someone who knows about insect biology. So how come Noah becomes swarm leader despite being male?

Kaleds:- note how not one female Kaled is ever seen. None of the Scientific Elite, for instance. Maybe Davros hated women. Maybe that's why he created a lifeform that could reproduce without involving females.

Vogans:- yet again, an entire species struggling to survive without a single female in sight.

Zygons:- apparently the one who pretended to be Sister Lamont was female, but was she the only one in a ship full of males? I bet her future looked promising!

Morestrans:- a ship's crew composed entirely of men from a society set far in the future. How likely is that?

Osirians:- it's more than likely there were females, Egyptian mythology is full of them.

Kraals:- another race facing extinction with no evidence of females. Maybe they just didn't fancy the men!

Sisterhood:- yeah, okay, so you can't have males in a Sisterhood! That's blatant sexism that is!

Krynoids:- as a vegetable lifeform, these are most probably bisexual. They'd need to have female reproductive bits in order to produce spores, which would have to be fertilised, one way or another.

Kastrians:- Eldrad was male despite his female appearance for much of the time, but he and King Rokon (King, note, not Queen) were the only ones we saw.

Time Lords:- strange how the majority of Time Lords are male, isn't it? Note that not one Time Lady was seen until The Invasion of Time and she was in a lowly job!

Tesh/Sevateem:- note how the only female seen is Leela. What happened after she left? How did the Tesh keep their race going?

Rutans:- come on, be honest. Can you tell what sex it is?

Nucleus of the Swarm:- hmmm! Curious to hear male voices going on about spawning. Seriously though, how do you tell the sex of a virus?

Fendahl:- fairly unique in that the dominant gender is female, but then they are hideously repulsive aliens.

Usurians:- listed as poisonous fungi. Why did the Collector appear to be male?

Minyans/Trogs:- ratio of 3:1 in favour of masculinity amongst the Minyans. Either Tala was well pleasured or her colleagues drank plenty of bromide! The Trogs are more evenly balanced but it's still the men in charge!

Vardans:- all male.

Zanaks:- all those seen are male, but the one at the top is...a Woman! Then again, she is psychotically evil.

Mentiads:- typical human gender balance with the males in charge.

Ogri:- male or female? Whatever. How do rocks reproduce?

Swampies:- yet another species on the verge of extinction. No wonder with no females around!

Movellans:- yes I know these are robots and don't really count, but it's interesting to note that at least someone decided to create a race of robots designed to resemble both sexes, complete with bulges in strategic positions!

Jagaroth:- we only see the one but presumably there were females. Didn't Countess Scarlioni suspect anything slightly strange about her husband? Was she blind? Or did she think it was some kind of novelty from a dodgy shop with blacked-out windows?

Mandrells:- probably both genders, it's hard to tell.

Nimon:- are any of these female? Do the females have horns? Are they referred to disparagingly as cows?

Argolins:- definitely males and females with the latter enjoying equal status, but they're all sterile, so why bother?

Foamasi:- not a single female mentioned.

Marshmen:- more than likely male and female, though it's hard to tell. They definitely evolved into males and females if the Alzarians are anything to go by.

Tharils:- examples of both sexes are seen but it's still the men in charge.

Logopolitans:- all male. But then women aren't noted for their logic, are they?

Kinda:- at long last, a truly civilised race. The women are in charge and have the power of speech whilst the men remain dumb and subservient. A feminist's dream.

Terileptils:- to be fair we only see escaped criminals. Presumably there's millions of law-abiding females at home.

Xeraphin:- why does the Xeraphin collective consciousness manifest itself as a male?

Manussans:- standard human gender balance.

Mawdryn and companions:- note how every one of Mawdryn's colleagues is male.

Vanir:- why are there no females? Who does the cooking? Is this the real reason Nyssa decided to stay on Terminus?

Eternals:- males and females with a female in charge of a ship, but then they're supposed to be beyond that sort of thing.

Tractators:- yet again, a species of invertebrate led by a male. Goes against nature!

Androzanians:- just thought I'd mention these to point out that every male in the story ends up dead, whilst all the females stay alive. Interesting that!

Gastropods:- hermaphrodites. Yet Mestor is depicted as being male. Hard to sympathise with a male voicing concern for its eggs.

Jacondans:- some of these were female, apparently, though it's hard to tell which.

Cryons:- a sop to feminism. How does the species survive without males? Having an all-female race makes as much sense as an all-male race.

Mentors:- of all the Mentors we encounter, not one is female.

Androgums:- at last, a species where males and females are more-or-less equal.

Morlox:- probably both sexes, though the Borad obviously didn't stop to think if it made any difference to his plans involving Peri.

Vervoids:- I don't suppose these really count (see Krynoids).

Mogarians:- only males encountered.

Lakertyans:- must be a sign of the times. For years we encounter nothing but male-only or male-dominated species, then a load of equally balanced ones come along all at once.

Chimerons:- unusual set up this one. The females are humanoid, the males green and reptilian, and they reproduce like insects!

Cheetah People:- thoroughly typical of all feline species. We see both males and females in equal proportions, and both do the hunting!

Stories which didn't feature any female characters other than those that arrived with the Doctor
The Space Museum
Mission to the Unknown
The Smugglers
The Tenth Planet
The Moonbase
The Abominable Snowmen
The Mutants
The Sontaran Experiment
Revenge of the Cybermen
Planet of Evil
Pyramids of Mars
The Masque of Mandragora (no speaking parts anyway!)
The Deadly Assassin
The Face of Evil (featured Leela who didn't arrive with the Doctor but certainly left with him)
The Power of Kroll
Warrior's Gate

Stories which didn't feature any male characters other than those that arrived with the Doctor
           !

So there we have it. Proof, if ever anybody needed it, that Doctor Who was sexist, at least until the early Eighties anyway. True we had the feminist Sarah-Jane in 1973, but she soon mellowed into a screamer despite becoming part of the best line-up from Liverpool between the Beatles and the Liverpool team that conquered Europe. But, just as the genders were being balanced, just as the females were beginning to be taken seriously, the ratings began to drop. Coincidence? Or is it just human nature for women to want to feel protected and for men to want to do the protecting? Was Doctor Who's eventual demise caused by the PC squad sticking their collective noses in and upsetting the balance. Would the show have survived its first year if Susan had behaved like Ace? Would the Doctor have been so keen not to lose Sarah-Jane if she'd been as irritatingly OTT as Mel? Some of the wettest companions were male, some of the toughest were female. The two that went around armed with knives also wore skirts. Leela's outfits caused consternation amongst the dirty-minded hacks in Fleet Street but most male viewers preferred Sarah, who rarely showed her legs. Whilst most of the stories tended to be virtual male preserves, it also meant most of the fatalities were male (e.g.The Caves of Androzani, Pyramids of Mars). The death of a female character is disturbing (Katarina, Sara Kingdom, Madame Lamia), the death of a male character is quickly forgotten. Who mourned Adric's passing? If that had been Nyssa or Tegan, Messers Turner and Saward would've been lynched. The female companions stay fresh in the memory, the males slowly fade away. The most popular male companion was Jamie, who wore a skirt. The only British TV series to feature a female time-traveller disappeared after four episodes (Hands up if you remember Time Riders). Is that sexist? Or a reflection of reality?
So Doctor Who was sexist. So what? It worked and people enjoyed it. So there. With knobs on.