Gender equality in film

CONTEXT

We carried out this research in response to what we perceived to be a worryingly low number of women directors represented in the UK film industry and the fact this had remained stagnant for nearly a decade.

The research drew from 2,500 UK films released over ten years, revealing there had been little improvement in prospects for women directors and that they faced barriers and obstacles at every stage of their careers.

AIM

To build an understanding of the causal factors behind the long-standing and persistent gender inequality facing women directors working in the UK film industry and develop a campaign focusing on practical solutions. Many of the reasons put forward as to why men got to direct so many more films than women are, when properly challenged, proved to be unfounded and often centred on myths that have become accepted as fact.

The aim of the study was to step away from the industry’s working culture and assumptions in order to analyse the problem in its full context. To understand, to influence, to change.

EVIDENCE

On 4 May 2016, Directors UK published its commissioned study Cut Out of the Picture - A Study into Gender Inequality Amongst Directors within the UK Film Industry, by Stephen Follows. It studied 2,591 UK films released over a ten-year period (2005-2014) and found that just 13.6% of working film directors in that decade were women.

The report also revealed there had been no real improvement in prospects for women directors, with the percentage of films directed exclusively by women only increasing from 11.3% in 2004 to 11.9% in 2015.

Despite women making up 50.1% of all film students in the UK and 49.4% of new entrants in the film industry, only 27.2% of short films and 21.7% of publicly-funded films studied were directed by women. As budgets rose fewer women were hired, with just 16.1% of low budget films (under £500,000), 12.8% of mid-budget films (£1-£10 million) and as little as 3.3% of big budget films (£30 million) being directed by women.

This filtering effect resulted in the disappearance of women directors at every level as they tried to progress their careers. In addition, public funding support for films with women directors had fallen dramatically in the preceding seven years. In 2008, 32.9% of films with UK-based public funding were directed by a woman whereas in 2014, it was just 17.0%. 21.7% of the films with UK-based public funding that had a woman director.

Women directors were also disproportionately underrepresented within certain genres, such as action, crime, horror and sci-fi.

This meant that on average, UK films were six times more likely to be directed by a man than a woman.

CONCLUSION

This report concluded that gender inequality is caused by unconscious bias stemming from systemic issues already within the industry, which includes an absence of a regulatory system to monitor, report and enforce gender equality and no structured hiring and recruitment practices. The industry’s lack of certainty means it leans towards greater risk-aversion causing a greater reliance on the stereotype of the male director. This means that old habits remain ingrained and the short-term nature of film projects discourages long-term thinking and preventing the use of positive HR practices. All of these resulted in a vicious cycle which perpetuated and enforced the low number of women directors.

ACTION

In May 2016, we launched the study findings prior to a panel discussion at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where we presented the following recommendations:

• 50% of films backed by UK-based public funding bodies to be directed by women by 2020.
• Public-funded film offers one of the most direct opportunities to impact the gender inequality in the film industry. A realistic time-frame (4 years) to put in place suitable schemes and initiatives to meet this target. A requirement for public funders to monitor and report on gender.
• Development of the Film Tax Credit Relief system to require all UK films to take account of diversity.
• This aspect of government support for the UK film industry touches all films produced in the UK, and therefore is the most powerful mechanism that can directly influence industry-wide change.
• Industry-wide campaign to inform and influence change.
• Government, industry leaders, agencies, production companies and public organisations to take decisive action to tackle gender inequality, and to work together as one industry to support equal opportunity regardless of gender.
• Directors UK to continue to campaign and lobby the film industry on gender equality and push for firm, tangible commitments that directly addresses the discrimination and unfair treatment of women directors.

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