(Picture: Peformance)Appearing on Radio 4' Desert Island Discs, she told host Kirsty Young that BBC director general Mark Thompson's recent promises to address the lack of older women on television were untimely.
The former news anchor said: 'It's a bit late, isn't it? He's been here for a long time, he hasn't done a lot about it.
'They have asked people like Julia Somerville back and I did bump into her recently and said 'congratulations, I'm really pleased that you've taken this job' and she said 'yes, I know, but I've only got 24 days a year on my contract'. It seems to me tokenism.'
Thompson had previously stated that there were 'manifestly too few older women broadcasting on the BBC, especially in iconic roles and on iconic topical programmes'.
Countryfile presenter Miriam O'Reilly won an age discrimination case against the BBC in 2011 after she was sacked when the show moved to a primetime evening slot.
Ford made waves when she described David Dimbleby as a 'charming dinosaur's after he was reportedly offered a £3.5 million contract with the corporation.
She said of the reaction to her comments: 'When a man speaks out, he's called assertive. A woman is branded something derogatory like 'aggressive'; it's very unfair.'
She added to the Telegraph: 'Maybe I come across as Angry Anna because I'm essentially a private person and I very rarely give interviews, so nobody sees the other sides to me.'
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