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‘Forget the female, take that away from my job title, I’m a writer and I expect to be treated the same.’
Challenging myths of participation in creative work.
Bridget Conor, Tamsyn Dent and Natalie Wreyford Doing Women’s Film and TV history conference, UEA 2014
Creative labour and screenwriting histories
Dr. Bridget ConorCulture, Media and Creative Industries, King’s College London
“I think there's a significant problem in that if you come with an original piece, you can often be put in the position
of having to sell everything, sell all your rights to it in order to get it off the ground, and then you can be taken
off your own project, and I think that's morally reprehensible, you know it's legally reasonable but it's
really inappropriate, you don't buy a piece of art and then go, I think I'll have this repainted by Damien Hirst, if you want to commit to somebody's own personal project then you have to commit to it in a serious way, so there's a big
problem and I think it's a historic problem, that writers started off as being studio hired hands.”
“Motherhood is the antithesis of creativity”
Challenging ‘myths’ of egalitarianism and preference. Combing motherhood and creative work: the case of the UK
‘creative media industries’.
Tamsyn Dent, Bournemouth [email protected]
“The move away from permanent employment and studio-based film production to an almost entirely freelance film production branch has hit women especially hard. Many of the departments they once worked in in film studios, such as art and
post-production departments no longer exist. And for women, with their greater domestic commitments it was far easier to take a
permanent job in a studio than to cope with the location filming or the irregular hours that are so often demanded in casualised film production.”
Patterns of Discrimination 1975
““women have been leaving the industry because of difficulty reconciling managing a career in the
creative industries with raising a family.”
“That was the big freelance thing in particular about the possibility of the ad hoc, and also long-term childcare about not knowing the hours and
not knowing when, or wanting half a day sometimes, and how do you do that, unless you
reach the point of having a full-time nanny but not necessarily having the full-time income to support
it” (former freelance film producer).
Women in the Creative Media IndustriesCreative Skillset 2010
Sk
Creative Skillset 2012 Census
“This Mapping Document demonstrates the continuing success of our creative industries. They are a real
success story, and a key element in today’s knowledge economy. All of this is, of course, founded
on original creativity – the lifeblood of these industries. The most successful economies and
societies in the twenty-first century will be creative ones. Creativity will make the difference – to
businesses seeking a competitive edge, to societies looking for new ways to tackle issues and improve the
quality of life”
From Forward of DCMS Mapping Document 2001
“Culture matters. That’s why it holds a unique place in our hearts”
“As the ties created by gender, age and social background become less rigid, so – increasingly – we define
ourselves by our cultural experiences and interests.”
“The key for me – and for you – is the need to make the economic, the social and the cultural arguments for our
sector. They cannot be mutually exclusive .’
From Keynote Arts and Culture Speech delivered by Culture Secretary Maria Miller, 22 January 2014
“Diversity enriches our society and communities. But it is also a creative and business imperative. The
creative industries suffer when they cannot draw on our creative people, whatever their ethnicity, gender or location. Yet the industries don’t always reflect that
diversity in their own employment practices. Moreover, it is not clear that the opportunities for the
recruitment of unpaid young people as interns, common in most creative industries, are distributed
evenly across all socio-economic groups.”
Creative Britain, 2008: 22
“The research we draw on for this pamphlet indicates that what happens inside the family, when a child is
very young indeed, strongly determines how they will react to people outside the home, how ready they will be to learn and ultimately what kind of a citizen they will become….. He has produced compelling evidence
that if a child is born into a home where they are nurtured, where conversation takes place, where
someone reads to them (even at an age where they cannot understand) then, quite simply, their brain
develops properly.”
Early Intervention: Good Parents, Great Kids, Better Citizens, 2008: 12
“If we could equip the parents or parent to optimise (usually) maternal responsiveness and their impact on their 0-3 year-old children, we would be laying secure
and strong foundations for all of the work that the public sector did thereafter”
Early Intervention: Good Parents, Great Kids, Better Citizens, 2008: 17
“I mean there’s no way you can manage the ferocity and intensity of TV Directing job with a child. They are
like the same thing. Making a film is exactly like having a child. You need everything that you’ve got
and more. It’s not just 24/7 it’s more. You know there isn’t a moment when you’re not thinking about the programme there isn’t a second when you’re not
trying to do something for it you know you put all your everything all your being all your energy everything
into it and then the same with a child and you can’t do that for 2 things”
“How can you do that with your tiny lady brain?”
Challenging industry discourses on the continued gender inequality of
screenwriting labour in the UK film industry.
Natalie Wreyford, King’s College [email protected]
• Women write drama, men write genre
“I think it does make a difference if you start to talk about gender and action thrillers or gender and certain genres of films. Men seem to be better equipped at writing those sort of films.” – Vicky, Female Employer
“…there are female screenwriters that I’ll go to for drama, male screenwriters I’ll go to for genre…” – Frank, Male Employer
• Things are getting better.
“I think probably in the past there was this problem where people thought women can only write ‘this’ thing, and I think commissioners were probably blocking women, but I don’t see this any more.” – Kate, Female Employer
Linking gender and genre
• “I think there’s a perception that women are more interested in relationships and emotions and the hidden depths and complexities of human drama, human life, quite rightly, okay?” – Rob, Male Employer
• “…instinctively when you meet a male writer you think he has a better understanding of genre and therefore audience than a female writer does.” – Kate, Female Employer
• “So, there’s a book that we’ve optioned recently which is absolutely a woman’s story. It’s about a female friendship and mothers and daughters and relationships, so I’m looking for a writer now and I’d ideally like to find a woman.” – Vanessa, Female Employer
• “It’s interesting that both [male writer/director]’s films tested as well for women as they did for men, which I was surprised because they’re quite violent. There’s a lot of blood in them, and a lot of swearing.” – Ian, Male Employer
Why do you think there are so few women screenwriters?
• “…because the female screenwriter is writing drama” – Frank, Male Employer
• “Um…so it’s what’s perhaps left on the shelf are the more character-driven pieces written by more intuitive, character-interested female writers” – Nick, Male Employer
• “…things that one might imagine women would write, more drama led, might be tougher to get made” – Vanessa, Female Employer
• “The reason I was commissioned was because they thought I would be able to write the women, the relationships between the four women at the centre.” – Catherine, Female Screenwriter
Female writers:
Male writers:
Discourse 2: “It’s getting better”
• I expect it not to stay the same for very long. – Yvonne, Female Employer
• …you imagine the more female screenwriters there are or the more female playwrights or - people writing for the first time are going to think oh yeah…- Robert, Male Screenwriter
• we’re probably working with more female writers than we are male writers at the moment – Nick, Male Employer
• The next thing Lena Dunham might write something with no women in it and break that barrier that women can write anything. And I think that is encouraging. - Kate, Female Employer
• Certainly for me, I think things have shifted in the last few years in that there are definitely…there are women writers out there. – Frank, Male Employer
Discourse 2: “It’s getting better”2013 2012 2011 2010 2009
% Female Screenwriters 10 15 14 10 8
Overall % of women employed as either directors, executive producers, producers, writers, editors or cinematographers
16 18 18 16 16
Historical Comparison of Percentages of Women Employed in Key Behind-the-scene Roles taken from Martha M Lauzen’s Celluloid Ceiling
reports on the Top 250 Films of 2009-2013
BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE 2013
UK FILM COUNCIL 2006
…you could say technically if J.K Rowling could write a book in a café as a single mother then everybody could do it…
- Eloise, Female Employer
