Former BBC China editor Carrie Gracie has said she is "very angry" about the way the BBC has treated some female members of staff.
The presenter, who resigned from her post earlier this month in protest at pay inequality, was giving evidence to a committee of MPs.
Gracie said she felt the BBC's response to her grievance was "an insult".
Director general Tony Hall said the BBC "got some things wrong", but added that he "admired her courage".
He insisted the BBC's system for dealing with pay complaints was "working" and equality was "at the core of what we stand for" but faced claims from one MP that the broadcaster was in "meltdown" over the issue.
Gracie, 55, who has worked for the BBC for more than 30 years, said a grievance process over pay concluded that the reason she was paid less than male counterparts was that she had been deemed to be "in development".
She said that justification was "an insult to add to the original injury", adding: "It is unacceptable to talk to your senior women like that.
"I would never have gone to China on those terms. I asked for equal pay at the very beginning."
In emotional testimony, the presenter also said she had found the grievance process "very painful".
She spoke about the "strain of being in conflict" and that, in the process, managers had attempted to "to crush your self esteem about your work".
A review published on Tuesday said there was "no evidence of gender bias in pay decision-making" at the BBC.
But the review, conducted by auditors PwC, was rejected by BBC Women, which represents almost 200 staff members.
The issue has been in the headlines since last summer, when the BBC published a list of presenters who earn more than £150,000 per year, revealing a gap in the earnings of its best-known male and female presenters and actors.
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