Creative Women

Another piece of research that has come to my attention recently, relates to several of the projects that I work on, but has particular salience with the Agender projects potential work with the BBC. This piece of research was recently carried out in Scotland and identified a number of key barriers and employment trends of women trying to work in this sector. In brief some particularly salient points that relate to the Agender project:

1. Only a minority of the case study companies had formal gender-related policies in place.

2. Where policies did exist, employees were somewhat vague
Informal, family-friendly cultures, although employees generally spoke positively of these informal approaches.

3. It was felt that flexible working would be difficult, if not impossible: in client-focused roles (e.g. in public relations and in commercial radio sales); in roles requiring almost constant interaction with colleagues and/or subordinates; in deadline-orientated roles; and in roles requiring long and unsociable hours (e.g. in theatre and in film and TV production).

4. Occupational segregation is evident - women are under-represented in the technical occupations and women are perceived to be better in production role

5. Older women are sidelined for younger women particularly in front of the camera

6. Long hours, short contracts difficult to maintain a work-life balance

7. 62% of the women had experienced unequal treatment in the workplace

8. 56% had faced gender-related barriers


The full report will beavailablee from their website soon.


Ref: Gender Barriers in the Scottish Creative Industries,
Seminar Proceedings, February 2006
Aberdeenbusinesss School, The Robert Gordon University
Rita Marcella, Lorraine Illingworth and Graeme Baxter