LONDON — The BBC apologized on Friday to a senior female journalist who quit as the broadcaster’s China editor this year over unequal pay, and said it would give her backdated wages for the years in which she was underpaid.

The journalist, Carrie Gracie, resigned from the role in January and moved back to the BBC’s London newsroom, publicly criticizing the broadcaster for its pay disparities between male and female staff members. She said she had been promised pay equal to that of one of her male counterparts, but a public review of BBC salaries made clear she earned less.

[BBC executives defended their decision to pay Samira Ahmed, a TV host, less than a male colleague.]

Hers was among several high-profile disputes that have emerged since the BBC revealed the salary bands of its highest-paid employees, an exercise that revealed big disparities between the wages of senior men and women. The review came amid a reckoning in Britain over gender pay gaps more broadly. A government requirement that large companies publish their official wage disparities has shown the vast majority of companies pay men more than women.

In a joint statement on Friday, the BBC and Ms. Gracie said they had agreed to “resolve their differences.” The broadcaster acknowledged that it had underpaid her, apologized and said it would provide her with backdated pay. Ms. Gracie donated the sum to the Fawcett Society, a British women’s rights charity, to set up a fund to offer legal advice to women on equal-pay claims.