The Real Cost of Childcare: Motherhood and Flexible Creative Labour in the UK Film Industry - Review Essay

Wreyford, Natalie

doi:10.16995/sim.26

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Wreyford (: 1) argues: ‘It is difficult to talk about women and work without talking about childcare. The same is not true of men and work and this is still one of the most obvious difficulties to be managed by working women, even those who choose not to have children’.…”

Section: Parenting and Gender Inequalities Within Film And Televisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting in, Getting on, Getting out? Women as Career Scramblers in the UK film and Television Industries

Wing-Fai

Gill

Randle

2015

The Sociological Review

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This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent AbstractThis paper looks at the predominance of freelancing in the film and television industries as a lens to examine the persistence of gender inequalities within these fields. Previous research has indicated that women fare better in larger organisations with more stable patterns of employment, and in this paper we explore why that might be the case, by focusing on the experiences of female freelancers at a moment when project-based, precarious work and informal recruitment practices are increasing in the UK film and television sector. We highlight in particular the ways in which gender inequality is mediated by age and parental status, and the impact of intersectional identities on women's ability to sustain a career in film and television.

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Section: Parenting and Gender Inequalities Within Film And Televisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting in, Getting on, Getting out? Women as Career Scramblers in the UK film and Television Industries

Wing-Fai

Gill

Randle

2015

The Sociological Review

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“…Skillset's report on the status of women in the creative industries in the UK found that representation was highest in sectors with larger employers in which more stable, permanent employment models are common, such as terrestrial television (48 per cent), broadcast radio (47 per cent), cinema exhibition (43 per cent), and book publishing (61 per cent) (Skillset, 2010). Permanent employment might be more attractive for workers with childcare responsibilities (see Wreyford, 2013, for a more detailed review of the effects of childcare responsibilities on female creative workers) because motherhood has been shown to have a detrimental effect on networking. Campbell demonstrates how ‘women with young children have more restricted network range, and lower network composition’, but finds no correlating disparity for men who start a family (Campbell, 1988: 193).…”

Section: Informal Socialized Recruitment Processes In Project-based mentioning

confidence: 99%

Birds of a Feather: Informal Recruitment Practices and Gendered Outcomes for Screenwriting Work in the UK Film Industry

Wreyford¹

2015

The Sociological Review

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The film industry offers an exemplary case study for examining the recruitment processes to which the ‘socialized worker’ (Gill and Pratt, ) is subject. Even among the creative industries, film is exceptional in its reliance on networking and word of mouth as its primary – and in many cases only – tool for recruitment and for identifying the ‘right’ candidate for the job (Blair, ). Increasingly there is evidence that reliance on personal networks and informal employment practices has different outcomes for men and women (Grugulis and Stoyanova, ). Hiring on short‐term contracts in a context of ambiguity, risk and uncertainty, necessitates reliance on social networks and informal subjective criteria, with outcomes that reinforce the status quo (Bielby and Bielby, ). Fenstermaker, West and Zimmerman argue that to overcome gender inequality ‘we will need to understand the mechanisms by which it is sustained in institutional social arrangements’ (Fenstermaker et al., : 38). This article will unpack how recruitment procedures that rely on ‘connections’ and ‘affinities of habitus’ (Bourdieu, : 151) can contribute to the way that gender inequality is sustained for screenwriters.

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“…Incompatibility of work and family, and problems returning to work after maternity, have been identified as the major reason for women’s decisions to leave the industry (Dent, 2020; O’Brien, 2014; Percival, 2020). For those who stay in the industry, several studies have highlighted the high rate of childlessness as a career decision for men and women, but particularly for women (Antcliff, 2005; Conor et al, 2015; French, 2014; Wreyford, 2013). Only 23.4% of our survey respondents had children, and of these just over half had only one child.…”

Section: Tv Production As Inequality Regimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time for a change: women, work, and gender equality in TV production

Milner

Gregory

2021

Media, Culture & Society

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This article uses Acker’s concept of inequality regimes to analyze qualitative research findings on work-life balance and gender equality for women in British television production. Female survey respondents, focus group participants, and interviewees spoke of their subjective experience of gendered work practices which disadvantage women as women. These findings build on existing research showing gender disadvantage in the industry, leading to loss of human capital and a narrowing of the range of creative experience. They also show that growing numbers of women are seeking alternative modes of production, at a time of increased awareness of inequality. Such alternatives suggest that change is possible, although it is strongly constrained by organizational logics and subject to continued resistance, in line with Acker’s framework of analysis. Visibility of inequalities is the key to supporting change.

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The Real Cost of Childcare: Motherhood and Flexible Creative Labour in the UK Film Industry - Review Essay

Cited by 19 publications

References 17 publications

Getting in, Getting on, Getting out? Women as Career Scramblers in the UK film and Television Industries

Getting in, Getting on, Getting out? Women as Career Scramblers in the UK film and Television Industries

Birds of a Feather: Informal Recruitment Practices and Gendered Outcomes for Screenwriting Work in the UK Film Industry

Time for a change: women, work, and gender equality in TV production

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