Women represent 26% of directors of European feature films and this percentage has not changed over the last decade. At the same time, there appears to be a significant pay gap between men and women in the European film sector. The European Union decided to adopt the Pay Transparency Directive in order to obtain more detailed information on this issue.
According to data published by the European Women's Audiovisual Network (EWA) and UNI, there is a gender pay gap in France in 2022 in almost all occupational groups in film and fiction audiovisual production. The French Gender Equality Observatory estimates that these pay gaps vary from 5% to almost 35% for some occupations.
There is also a gender pay gap in the European broadcasting workforce, which in some cases is more than 22% in favour of men. At EU level, the gender pay gap across economic sectors is 12.7% (Eurostat, 2021), with significant differences between countries and sectors. There has been little change in the gender pay gap over the last decade, and this is reflected in an even higher gender pension gap of almost 30% (Eurostat, 2019). At the current rate of 'progress', pay equality across the European Union will not be achieved until the next century (2104).
A gender pay gap of 'a few percentage points', which may look tiny on paper, translates into a loss of hundreds of thousands for women over the course of a career. The National Women's Law Centre in the US has calculated that the loss of 16 cents on the dollar for women, the average gender pay gap in that country, translates into a loss of $399,600 over a 40-year career.
The programme includes keynote speeches, a state of the art presentation by the European Audiovisual Observatory, a panel discussion with leading policymakers and industry representatives, and an exclusive conversation bridging generations of women filmmakers, commemorating the legacy of the 1973 International Women's Film Seminar in Berlin and revisiting history to inspire the next generation.
The Directors in Dialogue, an on-stage conversation between renowned Norwegian filmmaker Vibeke Løkkeberg and her daughter, filmmaker Tonje Kristiansen, will reflect on 50 years of gender imbalance in cinema.
Confirmed guest speakers, including Manuel Fioroni (European Audiovisual Observatory), Katleen Goosens (European Women’s Audiovisual (EWA) Network), Kjersti Mo (Norwegian Film Institute), Emma Rafowicz (Member of the European Parliament), Daphné Tepper (EURO-MEI), Enrico Vannucci (Eurimages) and Iris Zappe-Heller (Austrian Film Institute), will address structural barriers and innovative strategies for change.
For more information about the conference visit here.
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Photo credit: Paul Williams
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