GEP Analysis: Assessing, understanding and modelling the impact of gender equity policies (GEP) in the film industries
Final Report Abstract
The “Gender Equity Policy (GEP) Analysis” project builds on a substantial corpus of data evidencing the long history of gender inequity in the international film sector. The large team of researchers located in Germany, the UK and Canada designed an innovative, interdisciplinary approach with the aim to “Assess, Understand, and Model the Impact of Gender Equity Policies (GEP) in the Film Industry”. The project consisted of three sub-projects, whose insights were synthesized in order to understand how policies, practices and norms constrain equitable industry structures. The first subproject - the Numbers - provides a statistical analysis of gendered participation in creative teams of film production and studies whether and how the status quo of the numerical representation of women and men in key creative positions changes over time. To do so, a new industry database was built with data collected from the European Audiovisual Observatory’s LUMIERE database, comprising all feature films released between 2010 and 2020 in 33 European countries and Canada, which are part of the Eurimages support fund. The second subproject - the Policies - analysed 90 key gender equity policies published between 2003 and 2021 across the three case countries, Germany, the UK and Canada, by designing a new bespoke Policy Analysis Framework. For contextualization, interviews with 34 film and TV industry experts in Germany (nine interviewees), the UK (12 interviewees) and Canada (13 interviewees) were conducted, discussing the approaches to and imperatives for increasing gender equity, the effectiveness of existing policies and the change that industry professionals and policymakers would like to see. The third subproject - the Networks - evaluated the industry’s patterns of collaboration amongst key creatives in a “what-is” analysis and modelled the hypothetical impact of different policy interventions in a “what-if” analysis. Collaboration networks constituted from 4,269 projects and the 9,485 individuals who worked on them were prepared and analysed. Hypothetical modelling using complex social networks was undertaken to test the effectiveness of a variety of policy interventions on the networks. The project finds that (1) redressing gender inequity remains a long-haul endeavour, (2) no one-size-fits-all solution exists across different film industries, (3) policies need to be intentional and structural, (4) and the reach of policies that make access to, for instance, funding or awards nominations dependent on progress towards gender equity, needs to be expanded.
Publications
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Aggregate Data on Gender Equity in the Film Industry in 34 Eurimages Countries (2010-2020)”. Rostock: University of Rostock
Elizabeth Prommer & Sophie Radziwill
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Gender Equality Policy (GEP) Analysis Project. [Data Collection]. Enlighten Research Data
Kevin Guyan & Doris Ruth Eikhof
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GEP-Analysis Project: Film Industry Affiliation and Adjacency Matrices (Canada)
Deb Verhoeven, Pete Jones & Aresh Dadlani
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GEP-Analysis Project: Film Industry Affiliation and Adjacency Matrices (Germany)
Deb Verhoeven, Pete Jones & Aresh Dadlani
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GEP-Analysis Project: Film Industry Affiliation and Adjacency Matrices (UK)
Deb Verhoeven, Pete Jones & Aresh Dadlani
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Numbers Don‘t Lie: Gender Inequality in the Film Industry – 34 Eurimages Countries in a Comparative Perspective. Rostock: University of Rostock
Prommer, Elizabeth & Sophie Radziwill
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Re-Framing the Picture: An International Comparative Assessment of Gender Equity Policies in the Film Sector. Full Report Gender Equity Policy (GEP) Analysis Project. Potsdam: Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
Loist, Skadi, Deb Verhoeven, Doris Ruth Eikhof, Elizabeth Prommer, Martha E. Ehrich, Pete Jones, Kevin Guyan, Amanda Coles, Sophie Radziwill & Aresh Dadlani
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Technical Appendix of the Gender Equity Policy (GEP) Analysis Project Report Re-Framing the Picture. Potsdam: Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
Loist, Skadi & Martha E. Ehrich, eds
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The Networks: Technical Report for the GEP Analysis Project. In Technical Appendix of the Gender Equity Policy (GEP) Analysis Project Report Re-Framing the Picture, edited by Skadi Loist and Martha E. Ehrich, 43–64. Potsdam: Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
Jones, Pete, Aresh Dadlani & Deb Verhoeven
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The Numbers: Technical Report for the GEP Analysis Project. In Technical Appendix of the Gender Equity Policy (GEP) Analysis Project Report Re-Framing the Picture, edited by Skadi Loist and Martha E. Ehrich, 34–42. Potsdam: Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
Prommer, Elizabeth, Sophie Radziwill & Martha E. Ehrich
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The Policies: Technical Report for the GEP Analysis Project. In Technical Appendix of the Gender Equity Policy (GEP) Analysis Project Report Re-Framing the Picture, edited by Skadi Loist and Martha E. Ehrich, 6–33. Potsdam: Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
Guyan, Kevin, Doris Ruth Eikhof & Amanda Coles
