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GUEST POST: Do we need diversity quotas in film?
Engender and the Equal Media and Culture Centre have hosted student placements from the MSc in Social Research at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Strathclyde Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods course. As part of their research outputs, the students have produced a series of blogs.
In this post, Alex Davies looks at why there's still work to do to ensure diversity behind the camera in Scotland's film industry.
The Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) is the UK’s third-largest film festival and one of Scotland’s biggest annual cultural events.
The UK Government has recognised its “significant contribution” to Scottish culture and to the careers of new filmmakers through its Audience Award. The festival’s organisers pick the nominees, but the winner is democratically elected by film-goers. Since the nominees are specifically chosen to nurture the careers of first or second-time directors, the award is a great site to foster a more diverse film industry in Scotland.
In recent years, criticism of the Oscars and BAFTA nominations drew attention to the underrepresentation of women and people of colour in the film sector. Research has demonstrated stark gender and racial disparities behind the scenes of the UK’s film industry. The Calling the Shots project studied British films produced between 2003 and 2015, finding that only 13% of their directors, 20% of their screenwriters and 27% of their producers were women. Statistics for women of colour were even worse, as 90% of the films examined did not employ any women of colour at all.
The Glasgow Film Festival’s director, Allison Gardner, has overseen GFF to go from strength to strength in terms of inclusivity, especially in its recognition of women filmmakers. In 2020, films directed by women opened and closed the festival for the first time and in 2022, 40% of all the films at GFF 2022 were directed by women.
CINEMA FOR ALL?
Gardner has publicly voiced support for greater inclusivity in film, and has acknowledged that “We need to change those structures,”. Yet she has also asserted that the festival’s inclusive programming is not the result of quotas or targets but of a desire to maintain the “broadest possible appeal” to audiences. In fact, the Audience Award has consistently featured as many (if not more) women directors as men in almost every year of its history (see below), even before developments like 2017’s “Me Too” movement drew attention to gender inequality in the industry.
“Cinema for All” is certainly a great ethos and one the festival and its parent organisations, Glasgow Film and Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT), live up to. GFT is noted for its excellent attention to accessibility for autistic, deaf, and low-income patrons, for example. And in 2021, Glasgow Film commissioned an “Anti-Racism Audit” to help it meet its goal of becoming a “proactively anti-racist” organisation. Yet, good intentions aside, can an organisation (or industry) truly change its culture without setting concrete targets and goals? The audit itself recommended taking clear-cut actions and meeting deadlines to avoid becoming the kind of diversity policy that inhibits transformative change through its existence (see the work of Sara Ahmed, On Being Included, 2012, and Complaint!, 2021).
THE CASE FOR QUOTAS
Quotas and targets have been shown to work. In 2013, the Swedish Film Institute (SFI) pledged to distribute its production funding equally between men and women filmmakers. It reached its goal by 2014, and other organisations and festivals have since taken up its “5050x2020” pledge, like the National Cinema Centre in France, which introduced a point system and financial incentives to motivate filmmakers to participate. The BBC has done similar target-setting with its 50:50 Commitment, and the BFI released its own “Diversity Standards” in 2017, which Screen Scotland piloted in 2021 and is set to adopt fully this year. Other sectors have also joined in; Creative Scotland committed itself to “50/50 by 2020”, a pledge launched by Partnership for Change in 2015, which aims to tackle gender inequality on Scottish boards. That same year, more women than men were newly appointed to Scottish public boards, and Creative Scotland itself appointed a gender-balanced board for the first time.
In an article in The Herald, Gardner insisted that she prioritised the “quality” of the films she selected for the festival, not the genders of their directors. Indeed, the history of the Audience Awards demonstrates that there is no lack of talented women directors. Films directed by women won the Audience Award four out of the eight years I reviewed. My research on the award also found that, despite the high representation of women directors (54% of the total!), women were less well-represented in other key roles (writer, producer). Women of colour were particularly disadvantaged, representing only 6% of producers, for example, compared to white male producers (45%). This means that a white man working as a producer was seven times more likely to have his work nominated for an Audience Award than a woman of colour.
As initiatives like ‘5050x2020’ pave the way for underrepresented filmmakers to get their shot, it will become increasingly necessary to introduce quotas. Despite the GFF’s efforts to include women directors, women in other behind-the-camera roles and especially women of colour, were overlooked, suggesting attention to diversity targets for production and crew members are still very much necessary.
Engender occasionally works with students as part of their placement requirements for university or college courses - this allows students to work with Engender on specific areas of our work for women's equality. Student blogs form part of their course assessment, and they do not receive payment from Engender.
GUEST POST: Digital safety and women in politics
This is the first in a series of blogs from the Spring student placements Engender hosted from the University of Strathclyde Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods course.
In this post, Yoke Baeyens explores abuse online in the UK and beyond – with a focus on the experiences of women politicians.
In January 2023, the First Minister of the Scottish National Party, Nicola Sturgeon, resigned from her role. In her speech announcing her resignation, she described the “brutality” of public life as a politician, specifically referring to it as “hostile” for female politicians, highlighting the role that social media plays in the abuse that women politicians receive.
"Social media provides a vehicle for the most awful abuse of women, misogyny, sexism and threats of violence for women who put their heads above the parapet." - Nicola Sturgeon.
Nevertheless, for politicians and others working public-facing jobs, social media is now a job requirement. It allows them to have a connection and communicate with the public, but it also opens them up to targeted online abuse. Women politicians are victims of trolling, identity-based hate speech, threats of violence, doxxing and sexual harassment. It’s important to recognise that this abuse is not only a gender-based issue. An intersectional lens allows us to see that minoritised women experience amplified abuse, compounded by facets of their identity such as race, religion, sexual orientation, and disability.
The impacts of the online abuse female politicians face are multi-varied and far-reaching, affecting not only the individual receiving the abuse but the democratic process and wider society. It can have a profound psychological effect on the target of the harassment. In an Amnesty International poll on British and American women who experienced harassment via social media, 55%-67% reported a diminished ability to focus on everyday tasks and an increase in stress, anxiety, panic attacks and a feeling of apprehension when thinking about social media or receiving social media notifications. Female politicians who received online abuse have also reported decreased decision-making abilities, self-confidence and a sense of humiliation and powerlessness. These effects are felt across public-facing jobs, including journalism and academia, with women journalists stating that online abuse limits opportunities for women and causes a deterioration of the trust in media reporting.
Despite the fact that the abuse and harassment discussed above occurs online, it can have very real impacts on the feelings of safety and actual safety of female politicians. In the Amnesty poll, 41% of women said the online experiences made them feel that their physical safety was threatened. In the wake of Sturgeon’s resignation, Scottish women politicians have echoed this: it has become normalised to report threats to the police and even have panic buttons in their homes.
"As a queer woman, I definitely get it, and there's definitely extra levels to it. The Sad reality is I think we've become inured to it." - SNP MP Hannah Bardell.
Online violence and offline physical violence do not exist in a vacuum but a continuum of violence which can lead to physical harm and death. The murder of MP Jo Cox remains present in the minds of many women politicians as a reminder of the very real consequences of the online threats.
A further impact of online violence and harassment is the silencing effect it has on the women who experience it. As a result of the harassment, women can change the way they engage with social media, limiting their interactions, self-censoring the content they post and even leaving social media altogether in an attempt to limit the abuse they face. Female politicians thus lose the platforms that should allow them to have their voices heard and amplified, causing them to change their campaign activities in ways that negatively impact their opportunities to gain office (see Collignon and Rüdig’s work on increasing the cost of female representation for more detail). This silencing fundamentally disrupts the political process.
The silencing effect is a human rights issue. Women have a right to freedom of expression and opinion and to participate in public life without being discriminated against, which unchecked online violence infringes upon. Many female politicians have expressed concern that this will prevent young women from venturing into politics, though there is evidence that the rise in online abuse is already forcing women out.
"Specific action must be taken to protect women MPs and candidates. Without such action, an entire generation of women could be deterred from entering parliament." - Caroline Nokes, Chair of the Commons women and equalities committee.
Concrete steps need to be taken to ensure women politicians’ safety and safeguard their human rights. Currently, women are forced to bear the responsibility of their online experience, including navigating online violence. Social media platforms need to be held more accountable and regulate content, something that is being tackled by the upcoming Online Safety Bill. On Twitter, progress was being made, but the BBC has confirmed that the problem is getting worse, not better. Following the Twitter takeover by Elon Musk, reporter Marianna Spring has experienced a rise in misogynistic online hate, and there has been a 69% increase in newly made accounts that follow misogynistic and abusive profiles.
Putting more responsibility on social media platforms can be a solution that works alongside engaging the Equality Act in conjunction with Health and Safety laws. This solution which has been researched by Claire Kish, proposes that if women need to use these platforms to do their jobs, the responsibility of their safety falls on the employer.
While the UK government has shown no interest in incorporating Conventions on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Scottish government has committed to this bill. With new legal routes being explored and put in place, this indicates a positive shift in government support of women’s rights and points to the possibility of much-needed change in the future.
Engender occasionally works with students as part of their placement requirements for university or college courses - this allows students to work with Engender on specific areas of our work for women's equality. Student blogs form part of their course assessment, and they do not receive payment from Engender.
Cost of Living Crisis: How are rising costs affecting women in the arts?
As part of our blog series on the cost of living crisis, artist, writer and researcher Rosie Aspinall Priest explores the impact of the cost of living crisis on women in the arts in Scotland, and the need for more reliable, well-paid and flexible opportunities for those working in the arts.
Of the world’s ‘advanced economies’, the UK is amongst the most impacted by the cost of living crisis. The crisis has negatively impacted women disproportionately compared to their male counterparts. From rising rent prices to stagnating wages and increasing unemployment, more and more women are struggling to make ends meet. This burden is far from evenly distributed. Research from the Women’s Budget Group found that women were more likely to be living in overcrowded, poorly insulated, and poorly maintained homes than men. People from the global majority are almost twice as likely to be facing redundancy than white workers. It’s no wonder that 31 per cent of women highlighted the cost of living as a major source of financial stress, according to research from the Reward and Employee Benefits Association.
The impacts of the cost of living have rippled throughout the arts sector in Scotland. Many organisations have warned that they are under direct threat as a result. However, these conversations often miss a gendered element. Women in the arts in Scotland have long had to contend with gender inequality and sexism. In a recent survey, 44 per cent of women working in the arts in Scotland reported their gender being a barrier to work. The survey highlights, “men are also more likely to have worked in the creative sector for longer, to be working full-time rather than part-time and importantly, less likely to be the primary or sole carer of children”. Almost three times the number of women to men cited care responsibilities as a major barrier to their work in the arts. An article in The Stage highlights how societal expectations of women to be carers are often an obstacle for women in theatre.
In 2021, The National Advisory Council on Women and Girls highlighted that women in Scotland's creative industries were less likely to have managerial roles, with two-thirds of managerial positions held by men. On the flip side, two-thirds of administrative and secretarial positions were held by women. Despite the lack of women at the top, women made up almost 65 per cent of arts students, with a staggering 70 per cent of theatre students being women. There is no shortage of talented and brilliant women who could be leading the arts sector through the cost of living crisis.
The poor treatment of women in the arts in Scotland has needed to be uprooted for a long time. Just as it is not true that we were all in the same boat during the pandemic, neither are we all in the same boat during the cost of living crisis. Women, and those of marginalised genders, working in the arts have felt the squeeze the most. For example, the long-held expectation that arts workers will work long, often unpaid, hours impacts those with care responsibilities (most often women) drastically.
I have written extensively about the impacts of low-paid jobs and the need to radically change the arts approach to casual workers, especially those on zero hours contracts, which are endemic in the arts. Whilst zero hours contracts offer employers flexibility and the ability to curb spending on staff (which some organisations will consider key during the cost of living crisis), this disproportionately impacts women and, in particular, women from the global majority. Around 60 per cent of employees on zero hours contracts are women. Yet when the cost of living crisis and the arts is reported in the media, there is a distinct focus on arts leaders’ experiences and insights, instead of those experiencing the most damaging impacts of the crisis. In a recent Stage article, for example, six arts leaders were interviewed about the cost of living crisis, only two were women, and none discussed the impacts the crisis was having on their lowest paid employees.
Whilst arts organisations in Scotland are encouraged by Creative Scotland to be Living Wage employers, there are two loopholes. Firstly, there is no guideline on the number of hours guaranteed to staff. The Living Hours Scotland website advises that genuine living wage employers need to offer contracts of a minimum of 16 hours a week. Secondly, employers did not need to increase to an actual living wage until March 2023, despite it having been stated in April 2022 that the real living wage amount is £10.90/hr. Employers, including arts organisations, have therefore still been paying their lowest paid staff over 10 per cent less than the Real Living Wage, during the most economically unstable winter workers have experienced in a long time.
Soberingly, the Real Living Wage Foundation is not the only organisation with guidelines on pay; the Joseph Rowntree Foundation states the minimum amount an individual needs to earn to survive in the current crisis is £25,500 a year, almost £6000 a year more than the Real Living Wage equivalent. So even if employers raise their wages to £10.90/hr, this is insufficient to survive the cost of living crisis.
Within the arts in Scotland, the women who work on temporary, part-time, insecure contracts, or on zero hours contracts, have been propping up the sector for far too long, with little to no support from the industries they work for. Arts organisations dealing with financial hardships have decided to lay off staff. These job losses first hit those on low incomes and part-time contracts - predominantly positions held by women. Around 60 per cent of the sector’s part-time workforce are women.
Women need reliable, continuous, and well-paid work with the flexibility for care responsibilities which will also result in safer working conditions. In a shocking survey of freelancers, one in five women workers said they did not feel safe in their current work. There is a direct correlation between poor working conditions and experience of sexual harassment in the workplace, which has long gone unchecked within the arts. The temporary nature of many arts workers’ contracts makes abuse and harassment much easier for assailants. By creating an arts sector full of well-cared for and considered positions, women become more financially, and physically, secure. It is urgent that arts organisations take the time to consider how their employment practices may be compounding the cost of living crisis, whilst unwittingly creating unsafe working conditions for women. If these are not dealt with meaningfully, we will see a further decrease of women working in the arts, and a lack of women’s voices, experiences, and expertise within the sector.
We know that there are many different aspects to the cost of living crisis, and we’re keen to highlight all of the different ways that it is impacting women in Scotland. We're hosting blogs on a range of issues related to the cost of living and we want to hear from you – if you're interested, please drop us an email at media@engender.org.uk letting us know what aspect of the cost of living and its impact on women you’d like to write about.
Guest posts do not necessarily reflect the views of Engender, and all language used is the author's own. We aim for our blog to reflect a range of feminist viewpoints, and we offer a commissioning pot and editorial support to ensure that women do not have to offer their time or words for free. Find out more here.GUEST POST: What role does theatre have to play in the movement for gender equality?
Caitlin Skinner is Artistic Director and CEO of Stellar Quines, an intersectional feminist theatre company based in Scotland.
Stellar Quines create shows and provide opportunities and support for career development, both on stage and backstage, for creatives at all levels. They believe theatre is a force for change, for collaborating with others and building inclusive coalitions.They commission research and join forces with others to campaign for change, and take their work out into the community with projects that nurture creativity and invite action, all with the aim of achieving greater equality.
Find out more about Hack the Patriarchy and all their other work at www.stellarquines.co.uk.
What role does theatre have to play in the movement for gender equality?
In the middle of all that was 2020, Stellar Quines Theatre Company hosted an online version of a discussion event called Hack the Patriarchy. I set up these events as a freelancer in 2019to create spaces for people who work in the performing arts sector to have more meaningful conversations about gender inequality in Scottish theatre. As I watched the tiny squares multiply on my screen I was in awe of the power that was in the Zoom room. Surely if these people want change, we can make it happen?
There has been an unprecedented cry for change from many in the theatre industry in the last two years. There have been a lot of zoom rooms and twitter feeds holding the industry to account and looking at how the closing of theatres might give us the opportunity to come back better.
So I was keen to see how things might feel different when we launched a new series of Hack the Patriarchy events this year. We have done three so far, with another online event to go before our main all day event at the Edinburgh Fringe which will invite women and non-binary people from across the international performing arts community present in the city in August to look at how the patriarchy is effecting us and what action we can take.
And so far I can see, there has been a real change in the conversation. This time it feels like the industry is listening, it knows it needs to change to survive. That wasn’t the case when we had our first event back in 2019.
But there is a frustration and fatigue with the pace of change, with perceived tokenism and with the feeling that as long as the overall structures don’t change (hello capitalism, hello diminishing government subsidy for the arts) there’s not much that is going to get done. I’ve also heard people express a nervousness in coming to a discussion on feminism because they don’t feel up to date, that they might not have the ‘right’ opinion on an issue or use the ‘correct’ language.
I feel strongly that we can’t let this moment pass despite the frustration and fatigue and that we need to include everyone So, I am asking myself, what can we do about gender inequality in the performing arts but also what role does the performing arts have to play in the movement more broadly?
GUEST POST: “Warning” versus “claiming”: the subtle misogyny in media discourse
This blog is part of a series of posts by student placements from the University of Strathclyde Applied Gender Studies and Research Methods course that Engender hosted in Spring 2022. We wanted to share Kirsty Rorrison's valuable research here on the GEMS site too.
Kirsty's final post continues research into gender bias in political news reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, she discusses how male and female politicians are quoted and referenced in the media, and how this language plays into wider patriarchal society.
For my third and final blog post, I want to discuss what my research found about female politicians and their news coverage relating to the pandemic. In my last post, I discussed my findings on journalism and COVID-19 in a more general sense; I showed that the topics reported on and who was writing about them seemed heavily linked with patriarchal gender norms. Now, I want to consider what I learned about women in politics based on their representations in news coverage of the pandemic.
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