Memorandum submitted by Women in Film
and Television
Women in Film and Television (WFTV) is a non-profit
making membership organisation open to women with at least one
year's professional experience in any aspect of the film, television
or digital media industries. Founded in 1990, WFTV exists to protect
and enhance the status, interests and diversity of women in the
industry and aims to provide training and support for the professional
development of our members. Since its inception, WFTV has established
itself as a respected industry body, with a membership of some
800 women drawn from a broad spectrum of film and television professionals.
We are also the only gender-related organisation in the industry
and as such are the central mouthpiece and lobbying point for
all gender issues, working closely with government and public
bodies. WFTV (UK) is part of WIFTI (Women in Film and Television
International), an umbrella organisation linking all other chapters
in a global network.
We submit our evidence in the knowledge that
many of your other witnesses will have spoken about the strengths
and the importance of the British film industry both in financial
and cultural terms. Britain has been, and continues to be, an
excellent incubator for film talent in all areas. We strongly
support this committee in its work and encourage it to develop
initiatives that will strengthen our industry and keep our talent
here. WFTV is here today specifically to represent our constituency:
the women working in film and television and we submit the following:
1. Women in the Boardroom: The number
of women on the main boards of the top media plcs is woefully
small. For example, neither Carlton, nor Granada has a female
director on their main board, nor does Channel 4. It is illustrative
that, according to Cranfield Management College research, women
accounted for only 6% of board directors of the FTSE Top 100 companies
in 2001. Though the numbers of women in senior management positions
has increased, this is not reflected in the composition on the
boards. At a recent "Voice on the Board Conference"
also organised by Cranfield School of Management, the chairman
of Lloyds TSB pointed out that boards that have diverse membership
are more successful than homogenous boards at problem solving
and are more responsive to their markets. Indeed, Derek Higgs
has made this point again, very clearly, in his 2003 report on
company management and the make-up of boards. We think it important
to encourage and perhaps provide incentives for media companies
to appoint more ethnically and gender balanced boards. We suggest
that this is part of the implementation of the Higgs recommendations
and WFTV would be happy to work with the committee or the Government
on mechanisms to achieve this.
2. Gender Imbalance in Technical Areas:
There are known gender imbalances in the technical grades such
as camera, sound, lighting, and special effects. This is clearly
shown in the Skillset Annual Census and over the three years the
Census has taken place there has been little improvement. WFTV
believes that one answer might be to address this at school by
encouraging teenage girls to consider the technical grades when
looking at careers in the media, much in the way the building
and engineering trades have recruited more women by going to the
grass-roots. But there is also a strong case for positive discrimination
when selecting candidates for training, particularly in these
technical areas.
3. Gender Imbalance in Directing and
Screenwriting: There is a significant gender imbalance in
both these areas. In the autumn of 2002 the BFI analysed UK feature
film productions of the previous two years (including those in
production). Out of the total of 350 films only eight were directed
by women. Also in the autumn of 2002, WFTV and the Film Council
jury met to select the winner WFTV/Film Council feature film writing
award. The jury was disturbed by the small pool of female writers
from which to select. Of the various explanations for under-representation
of women, the favourite one is that films made by women earn less
than those made by men. However, analysis of 1998 box office grosses
by gender reveals that films employing at least one woman behind
the scenes (as executive producer, producer, director, writer,
cinematographer or editor) had a slightly higher average US box
office gross than films without any women working in these roles.
Of the top 221 films (by US box office gross), 51 had no women
in any of these roles. On average, these films grossed $25.6 million.
The other 170 films, with at least one woman behind the scenes,
grossed an average of $31.6 million (from "Challenging Conventional
Wisdom: Behind the Scenes Employment of Women in the Top 250 Films
of 1998" by Dr. Martha Lauzen). We have attached Dr Lauzen's
most recent paper The Celluloid Ceiling Study (June 2002).
It makes illuminating reading and we suggest that similar research
should be done in the in the UK. This kind of research provides
the evidence necessary to help change the minds of those who see
no problems of gender imbalance, and would help us encourage financiers
to place more emphasis on considering women for directing and
writing bigger-budget films.
4. Training subsidy: We suggest giving
consideration to the principle of double-subsidy for the training
of women in all areas of the film industry, but most particularly
in the technical, writing and directing areas where there is a
definite gender imbalance. Childcare is rarely a male issue and
women need help to cover childcare costs when training or retraining.
This is particularly relevant for work returners, that large and
under-used workforce lying dormant in the UK.
5. Working Conditions: In 1998 WFTV
carried out its own survey of working conditions in the film and
television industry to find out whether the rumours about deteriorating
working conditions under the pressures of an increasingly freelance
market were true (see enclosed Annex A—copy of the Survey
on Working Conditions.) The situation our respondents described
was as disturbing as the rumours. We found a workforce overstretched
and demoralised, working in conditions, which had serious implications
for health and safety, equal opportunities and work/life balance
for workers at all levels. In 1999, one year later, we carried
out a brief update on the survey to find out whether the Working
Time Directives had had any effect in the areas of Contracts,
Working Hours, Breaks and Health and Safety over one year and
found no improvement (see Page 25 of Survey on Working Conditions.)
From recent evidence (see enclosed our new report (Employment
in Film and Television in the UK, a report on the position of
women within the industry March 2003) it would seem that the situation
has still not improved. Women with children are leaving an industry
that does not recognise their needs in terms of childcare and
working hours. However, there are not yet any hard figures to
reflect this loss to the workforce.
(a) A decline in standards: As budgets
and schedules are squeezed, younger, untrained staff and freelancers
are employed in place of more expensive but experienced staff.
Those who do have skills find themselves stretched because they
not only have to work longer hours themselves, they also have
to spend more of their time informally training unskilled staff
and/or correcting errors that have been made. While saving money
in the short-term, this strategy of employing untrained staff
has a knock on effect and results in a less skilled workforce
overall, inevitably affecting standards in the long term.
(b) Long-term exhaustion of workforce:
An industry based on short-term solutions and corner-cutting is
economically unsustainable: in the long term, those who remain
in the industry are more likely to face frustration, burn-out
and/or depression, while those with the means to leave, (ie those
with the talent and ability to do so) will seek higher rewards
elsewhere. As a result, the workforce will be depleted, undermotivated
and low in morale. This is highly destructive to the creative
process. It also implies that the number of days lost through
sickness will rise, as well as the number of accidents both within
and outside the workplace.
(c) Unequal social representation:
Long and irregular working hours, combined with inadequate health
and safety provisions, means that women (and men) who are the
prime carers for children and other dependants are more likely
to leave the industry. This not only impacts on the representation
of parents and carers, it also impacts on the representation of
certain minorities who are more likely to have a higher number
of dependants living at home.
2 May 2003
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