Business, Innovation and Skills CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Directors UK

Directors UK is the professional association for film, television and all moving image directors in the UK. With over 4,500 members it represents the overwhelming majority of working film and television directors in the UK, and as part of the British Creative Sector, plays a significant role in representing individuals contributing to 3% of UK Gross Value Added—about £36billion of the UK’s economy.

We would welcome the opportunity to present oral submissions to the inquiry.

Executive Summary

1. Directors UK is concerned about the low number of female film and TV directors in the UK and the imbalance in their employment across certain genres.

2. Directors UK is working with employers in the sector to identify reasons for the imbalance and exploring ways to increase the ratio of female film and TV directors on British productions and to address gender stereotyping.

3. We would welcome better transparency about workforce composition and pay among the freelance directing community (for both men and women) from industry employers.

4. Directors UK is keen to ensure that both men and women from all backgrounds have fair access to and awareness of available work and training opportunities.

5. We would welcome government support to incentivise employers in the film and television sectors to recognise and meet the challenges faced by freelancers, particularly those with childcare obligations.

6. We would also welcome government support for working parents through providing additional childcare support for those who have to work outside normal office hours, including evenings and weekends, and on short contracts.

Introduction

7. Directors UK is the professional association for film, television and all moving image directors in the UK. The organisation is both a collecting society for the distribution of secondary rights payments to directors and the professional association providing services and support to its members.

8. Directors UK also acts as a lobbying and campaigning organisation on behalf of directors. It seeks to protect and enhance the creative, economic and contractual rights of directors in the UK and works closely with organisations in the UK, Europe and around the world to champion directors’ rights and concerns. With over 4,500 members it represents the overwhelming majority of working film and television directors in the UK.

9. Directors UK welcomes the opportunity to submit comments to the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee inquiry into Women in the Workplace.

The Creative Sector

10. Film and Television are a key part of a thriving British Creative Sector. As a whole the creative industries in the UK employ about 1.5 million people and are worth 3% of UK Gross Value Added—about £36 billion to the UK economy.1 It is vital that the creative industries are included in the work of the Government when considering employment practices.

11. Creative Skillset published a report In September 2010 which looked at the role of women in the creative industries. It found that 42% of the creative media industry’s workforce is female, compared with 46% of the workforce across the wider economy.2

12. The report also showed that there had been a large drop in the numbers of women in some sectors from 2006 to 2009, including independent television production which fell from 46% to 38%. It also showed that a higher proportion of employees (38%) compared to freelancers (34%) are women.

13. According to the latest figures from the BFI, of the films released in cinemas in the UK in 2011 only 15% of the directors were women.3 Figures for the number of women directors working in the television sector has been less readily available.

Women Directors

14. In 2012 Directors UK established a Women Directors Working Group to explore the issues affecting our female members, and particularly the sense that the representation of female television directors was low. While there appeared to be much anecdotal evidence regarding the low numbers of female directors in the UK there was a lack of hard data to support this.

15. Directors UK undertook a research project, using the information in our database which comprehensively gathers data on the works of our 4,500 members for collection and remuneration purposes. We looked at the output of works by our members by age and gender, and compared the representation of women and men working as directors on a sample of long running TV production strands across a variety of genres. Our findings showed that (Directors UK data):

15.127% of our members (professional film and television directors) are women.

15.2There is a general drop off in work output for both male and female directors after the age of 55, but a greater drop off among women directors in the 35–55 age range (see graph below).

15.3 There is a difference between genres in terms of how well represented female directors are, with drama representation falling well below the ratio of the working female director population which we represent:

Continuing drama (soaps)—on average 15% of episodes were directed by women, 85% by men. On some series the % of episodes directed by women falls below 3%. These are often seen as entry pathways for drama directors.

Drama series and serials—on average 9% of episodes were directed by women, 91% by men. On some series the % of episodes directed by women falls well below 3%. The findings also suggest some gender stereotyping in drama with science fiction, action and detective dramas showing particularly low representation of women, in some cases as low as 0%.

Factual and factual entertainment programmes—on average 36% of episodes were directed by women, 64% by men.

16. We have recently taken our findings to the BBC, ITV and Pact (the trade association for independent production companies). Reaction to the material we have presented has been surprise and shock, but there appears to be a willingness to work with us to understand and address this disparity and to explore ways of putting it right. We would however welcome any support from the government and relevant industry bodies to support this.

17. Without a more detailed understanding it is hard to know whether the causes of this disparity derive from very specific circumstances on particular television productions or from more generic/structural factors, or a combination of both. Our preferred course of action at this point is to work with the television companies to identify the causes behind the low levels of employment of women directors on specific shows (and indeed to understand why on others it has been possible to achieve much higher levels). Armed with that understanding we believe we would all be better placed to determine the right course of action to rectify the problems directly and to apply good practice more widely.

18. We believe better gender representation is not just about fair employment opportunities, but also about ensuring a proper representation of female voices as storytellers and social and cultural commentators.

Q1: Do the Gender Equality Duty and the Equality Act go far enough in tackling inequalities, such as gender pay gap and job segregation, between men and women in the workplace?

19. As the majority of film and TV directors are freelance it is harder to assess the impact of the Gender Equality Duty and Equality Act on them. However, as highlighted in our research referenced above (Para 15) there is a considerable difference between the volume of work being carried out by male and female directors for UK broadcasters and independent TV production companies. Our findings indicate that this is a trend that has changed very little in recent years and in some cases, such as some dramas, appears to be getting worse with the volume of work directed by women in some areas decreasing in the last three years.

20. Regarding pay, there is an absence of hard data on pay in the film and television industry. However, there are a number of creative industry surveys which have attempted to track pay in the sector. For example, Creative Skillset’s report (2010) highlighted that in 2009 the average salary for a woman working in the TV industry was £32,341 compared to £38,930 for a man.4 However, this is an average salary across the whole workforce in the sector, and does not provide a breakdown by role eg director. It is not possible to assess whether this disparity between pay for men and women in the TV sector has changed since the introduction of the Equality Act 2010 as the data is yet to be made available. We understand that the next Creative Skillset survey is due to be published shortly.

21. The Televisual Annual Pay Survey, which looks at the average pay of respondents across a range of roles in the television sector also reports a disparity of pay between the genders: In its latest report the average salary for male respondents in 2011 was £56,000 compared to £49,000 for women. It does not explore the possible reasons for this gap.5

Q2: What steps should be taken to provide greater transparency on pay and other issues, such as workforce composition?

22. Directors UK believes that transparency by employers is key to addressing equality in both workforce composition and pay.

23. This is particularly important within the creative sector where many creative individuals, such as directors, are freelancers and are therefore operating outside a typical employment structure. As such this data is not traditionally captured and monitored in the same way as data for other staff employees. Indeed we strongly suspect that the monitoring of freelance directors’ employment often takes place outside the purview of HR departments—in many TV companies directors are classified as “talent” rather than employees. Away from the surveillance of conventional HR experts there may be a false impression that “everything is fine”.

24. Our recent work, presenting our research findings on gender representation of TV directors to broadcasters and production companies, has highlighted how limited the monitoring of actual employment rates of women in a predominantly freelance industry has been.

25. We would like to see industry employers in the creative sectors monitor their hiring practices for freelancers more closely in order to provide greater transparency and to ensure better gender representation. We are working with the main UK broadcasters to highlight the need for this for directors.

26. With regards pay, we acknowledge that transparency may be harder to achieve, particularly in a largely freelance sector where the workforce is more fragmented and pay is often dependent on an individual’s ability to negotiate. Remuneration and benefit levels can vary dependent on a variety of factors such as the nature of the hiring company, the type of contract issued, the terms of the contract and the individual’s previous experience.

27. As highlighted in paras 20 and 21 above, in the absence of any specific industry data on pay there is a tendency to rely on surveys, which are only as a reliable and representative as the data gathered and the sample responding. We are about to initiate a project with the BBC to capture real data about freelance directors pay as a first step in addressing this and to allow a more accurate review of pay to be made and to identify whether there is any gender pay disparity.

Q3: What has been the impact of the current economic crisis on female employment and wage levels?

28. Directors UK is not in a position to comment on the impact of the current economic crisis on female director employment and pay.

Q4: How should the gender stereotyping prevalent in particular occupations, for example in engineering, banking and construction, and the beauty industry, be tackled?

29. Gender stereotyping is an issue which affects a wide variety of occupations, including the television and film production sectors.

30. According to the Creative Skillset Consensus (2009) women tend to be more highly represented in areas such as costume and wardrobe (68%) and make-up and hair (52%) and less in more technical roles such as engineering & transmission (7%), editing (14%) or audio/music/sound (11%).6

31. As highlighted in para 15, our research has shown 27% of directors in Directors UK’s membership are female. There does appear to be some gender stereotyping in work undertaken, particularly in drama where the number of drama episodes directed by women averages at 9% of output and in many instances falls much lower. We found that women are less likely to be appointed to direct science fiction, action and detective dramas.

32. One concern is that with a similarly low representation of female writers (BFI stats showing that only 19% of feature film writers are women7) the cultural value of the female storytelling voice is under-represented.

33. For television and film directors, our members believe that some of the factors affecting the employment opportunities for women directors include:

33.1Women’s CVs are often called “eclectic” which is generally meant as a negative code for not as focused or “straight line”—women often have to move sideways, due to fewer opportunities to pursue a more directional career path through one or two specializations.

33.2Women are seen as a risk by some producers, in an increasingly risk-averse industry. We believe this is due to:

A perceived incompatibility of the director’s role with having children.

Perception that women may not be able to fully control a largely male crew.

Some male lead cast don’t like being directed by women.

33.3There is gender stereotyping in certain production areas, eg action adventure; sci-fi etc tend to be directed by men.

34. Our research evidence suggests that there is no fundamental reason why women can’t and aren’t able to direct programmes in any genre. There are numerous examples of successful female directors who are doing so at the top of their profession, eg Television drama: S.J. Clarkson (Hunted, Dexter, House, Life on Mars, Hustle); Susanna White (Parades End, Generation Kill, Boardwalk Empire, Bleak House); Aisling Walsh (Wallander, Room at the Top); Factual: Kim Longinotto (Rough Aunties, Sisters in Law); Ursula MacFarlane (The Life and loss of Karen Woo, Abortion Choice); Penny Woolcock (On the Street); Entertainment Nikki Parson’s (Strictly Come Dancing, The Voice, So You Think You Can Dance); Feature film: Lynne Ramsay, (We Need to Talk About Kevin); Phyllida Lloyd (The Iron Lady); Andrea Arnold (Wuthering Heights, Fish Tank) and not forgetting US director Katherine Bigelow who won the first Oscar as a female director for The Hurt Locker.

35. Directors UK believe that a key way to tackle gender stereotyping is by highlighting positive examples of women who are doing the work thereby removing the misconception that they are not able to or can’t work in a given area or field.

36. We are currently working with our membership, the BBC, ITV and Pact to understand the reasons for the low number of women directors in some genres and to find solutions to address this.

37. We also believe it is important to ensure that both men and women from all backgrounds have fair access to and awareness of available work and training opportunities.

38. Directors UK’s women directors working group is currently exploring ways of providing role models and mentor opportunities for women directors to help develop and progress their careers.

39. We also believe that it is important to challenge and expose misconceptions and false assumptions about the employability of women directors and to tackle the lack of awareness of women directors. Potentially discriminatory employment and recruitment practices should also be challenged directly, such as “approved lists” with few women on them, inappropriate assessment of CVs etc.

Q5: What more should be done to promote part-time work at all levels of the workplace and to ensure that both women and men have opportunities to gain senior positions within an organisation while working part-time?

40. Directing is a profession which does not naturally lend itself to part-time working. However, exploring opportunities for enabling part-time work is an area we hope to pursue with industry employers.

41. Additional support for childcare is a key way in which the Government could support parents in the sector. Television and film production, and particularly directing, often involves working long, unpredictable hours, sometimes away from home, on contracts that are often offered at short notice. This can make it extremely difficult for parents—both men and women—to make suitable and affordable childcare arrangements, particularly where these fall outside regular working hours and are short term and/or last minute in nature.

42. Directors UK would welcome any support to improve the flexibility, cost and availability of childcare for working parents, and particularly for those working as freelancers/outside normal employment structures. Measures that incentivise employers in the film and television sectors to recognise and meet the challenges faced by freelancers with childcare obligations would be especially welcome.

43. We therefore welcome the recent announcement from Secretary of State Maria Miller, as Women and Equalities Minister, that £2 million in grants is being made available to assist those wanting to set up child-minding businesses. We hope that support for flexible childcare provision will be included as part of this investment.

44. It is also important that training is available to both men and women working in the sector in order to ensure they have equal opportunities for skills development and career progression. A recent survey by BAFTA found that females are more likely to be put off a career in film and television than men, particularly at a young age.8 The casualisation of the workforce has fragmented access to training opportunities for our largely freelance British talent base. We also have a concern that a skills and training strategy that focuses on the perceived needs of employers will not always match the needs and expectations of freelance creative individuals who want and need to develop their professional skills.

45. We believe a strategy for the development of the whole careers of creators, and not just discrete skills training, is required. We also believe that individual creative talent would be best-served if training strategy and funding focused more on the delivery of career development through professional associations who are tuned in to the needs of their members.

46. We are ready to work with Creative Skillset to identify these gaps and needs and to deliver the necessary training to ensure that there is no shortage of talented, world-class British directors creating innovative British content.

47. Finally, the vast majority of creators and authors are freelance ie pursuing their careers outside a company/staff employment structure, with fewer employment rights and protection and with limited support. Their careers are often characterised by long periods where they are not paid. This time can be used productively to develop and research new projects, but at their own risk. We note the moves that the Government has already made to alter certain aspects of the corporate tax regime in the UK with a view to incentivising spend on R&D. We would like the government to explore the possibility of extending similar ideas to individual creators through the personal tax system so that authors are incentivised to invest their time between periods of “paid work” in the development of strong and innovative creative ideas.

Q6: To what extent have the recommendations in lord Mervyn Davies’ Report “Women on Board” (published Feb 2011) been acted upon?

48. Directors UK is not in a position to comment on the status of women on the boards of FTSE companies or any changes to this as a result of the recommendations detailed in Lord Davies’ report.

49. We do support the recommendation not to introduce quotas for female employment and the recommendation to introduce voluntary measures to improve transparency regarding senior-level employment.

Q7: To what extent should investors take into account the percentage of women on boards, when considering company reporting and appointments to the board?

50. We believe that consideration should be given to a number of factors including the range, expertise, knowledge and experience of board members.

Q8: Why are there still so few women in senior positions on boards, and what are the benefits of having a greater number?

51. At Directors UK our board is made up of elected representatives from within the membership. In order to ensure that the board is truly representative of our membership in terms of diversity and genres of work we are also able to co-opt members to the board.

52. Directors UK currently has 20 board members, seven of whom (35%) are female. Of the five committees which currently operate within Directors UK’s committee structure there are three female chairs.

53. We believe that having a strong presence of female film and TV directors on our board is an excellent way of providing inspiration and positive role models for women directors, and reaffirms that women can and are working across all genres in the production industries.

54. For professional bodies such as ours it is essential that the composition of the board reflects the diversity of the membership and thus encourages inclusiveness. This does not always happen where board seats are decided by elections and where the majority can dominate all minorities.

Q9: How successful is the voluntary code of conduct (a recommendation of the Davies Report) which addresses gender diversity and best practice, covering relevant search criteria and processes relating to FTSE board level appointments?

55. We support that appointments should be made based on business needs, skills and ability.

56. In order to ensure that there are more women represented at senior level and to improve gender diversity across all sectors, we believe that fair access and opportunity for all is key.

19 December 2012