Manuela Ocón Aburto, Director of Production and partner of AAMMA
When I look around me in a shoot I see that we are not all there. Women are missing in the technical teams of audiovisual fiction production. Directors, producers and screenwriters are lacking. But also directors of photography, composers of soundtracks and technical women of mechanical and digital special effects. So until you go through the entire list, with very few exceptions that confirm a rule: cinema is a man’s job.
Every so often I attend a conversation that begins in the mouth of colleagues and to which some colleagues join and agree. In that conversation the decision to make a positive action policy to enable, at least, women who are about to get a managerial position give one last push and get it. These policies pay off.
Equality Act 2007
We see it in every project. It goes without saying that this decision is framed in a law, the Equality Law of 2007, with which we all endow ourselves in a democratic society. Without these actions we could be waiting for five years for equality in numbers to arrive, so it is welcome to accelerate the process. But it’s not enough. It is not.
From the associations of women in the audiovisual sector in Spain, and specifically in Andalusia, we make our colleagues visible and they get stronger. We also get the youngest and, why not, the oldest have references. We fight for them to have their place at festivals. But it is still not enough.
“We live in a patriarchal and capitalist society to which the audiovisual sector is no stranger”
We live in a patriarchal society and capitalist of which the audiovisual sector is not alien. This framework produces gender inequality. But we need to know the mechanisms that produce this fact because they are complex.
We are still less
From the Council of europe institutional responsibility is urged to encourage research on this. And we continue to carry out quantitative studies, we continue to count each year how many we are. And we continue to be less than we should because many are left behind. We are waiting for the data after the COVID-19 pandemic.
We will see and study the percentages of women who have been trapped by care tasks, essential tasks for survival. It will be more difficult to study the actions not carried out due to the lack of economic resources on the part of public administrations and private companies to provide elements that help create a more egalitarian society in this area.
Time management
Time management is an effective tool to reflect on inequality. On June 13, 2013, the European Institute for Gender Equality presented in Brussels the Gender Equality Index, which was developed using six indicators: work, money, knowledge, health, power and time. In the last two, power and time, we find the highest levels of inequality in our country compared to the rest of the European Union.
“Unpaid work is unevenly distributed and falls mainly on women”
Let’s put a generic example: According to time use surveys, men and women distribute their time in a different. It is quantified, according to the hours of the day, to what people spend that time according to work, family and leisure activities. It is demonstrated that women work, whether paid work or not, more hours than men.
Uneven job
Furthermore, unpaid work is unevenly distributed and falls mainly on women. Among them, there is an overlap and accumulation of tasks that makes it difficult to measure and identify times. In addition to working longer hours, they do use of “double presence”, that is to say, to carry out several at the same time to be able to assume the workload, that load to which they are forced by demand of others and not always of their own free will. This Multitasking situation causes in women a stressful situation that facilitates the rejection of managerial positions where time and autonomy are needed in their management.
If we place ourselves in the work environment of creating a work of fiction, the situation worsens for women. On the one hand, due to uncertainty and job insecurity, and on the other, due to the lack of routine that enables a vital organization. There is no social responsibility in companies that helps alleviate this situation. The production companies themselves are weak in their structures and have very limited resources.
A specific heading
On the other hand, so far there is no economic heading in the budget model for audiovisual work proposed by the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts where economic aid is provided for production for these issues, which are kept in the private sphere.
This aid would be fully justified for work projects where the people who participate do not have the possibility of reconciling family and work life. Neither are there any resources from the public administrations that cover care tasks in a work environment characterized by its lack of routine regarding work time.
“Gender inequality in the audiovisual sector causes lack of freedom of expression”
It’s not a fair deal. It is a distribution that arises from the capitalist system where the economic benefit is above the common good. In this system the care society is invisible. That which makes reproductive work possible, but also the care of sick people, of elderly people. The one that is run by women and that is necessary for our survival.
Hence, from the male point of view, individuality is above the group. The person is more exposed in the face of success or failure, but also more alone in their social relationships. From the point of view of the care society, from a female point of view, relational identity is vital and more welcoming, but since it does not produce, supposedly, an economic return, it is neither relevant nor worth mentioning. Let us remember that what is not named does not exist.
Balance life time
Seen like this, it is a cast where we all lose. We don’t just need conciliation. We need the co-responsibility: the social co-responsibility of people, companies and the State. We must balance the life time. Right now its referential axis is the working time and this fact makes the domestic activities.
“An economic endowment and certain time policies would allow a life more in accordance with our social environment”
A economic endowment and establishing certain time policies in our sector would enable a life more in keeping with our social environment for everyone. It is very likely that this way, the accounts will turn out better and we could discover that there are more women interested in the audiovisual sector of which currently are. And this is important for social justice.
As stated by the Council of Europe, gender inequality in the audiovisual sector causes lack of freedom of expression. Let us not lose tension when the pandemic passes –because it will pass-, let us not let the economic crisis and democratic values that will come make us take a step back in relation to an egalitarian society and the provision of care.
Cover photo: Julio Vergne
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