Women in Creative Media

May 2011

UK Economy Gender Balance

= 47% = 53%

Source: LFS, ONS July 2009 – June 2010

Women: An Endangered Species?

Overall representation of women has fallen dramatically from

Representation of women has fallen most sharply and is very low in:

offline multimedia online content games commercials and pop promos corporate production

Representation of women in television has fallen to

38% to 27%

5% from 37%6% from 31%

4% from 12%15% from 31%

14% from 29%

41% from 45%Source: Skillset Employment Census (2009)

Ladies First…

• The TV industry has experienced a decline of 10% in employment overall in the last 3 years;

• Nearly 5,000 women left the TV industry between 2006 and 2009, compared with just 750 men.

Source: Skillset Employment Census (2009)

Jobs for the Girls• Representation is highest in:

• costume and wardrobe • make-up and hairdressing

• Representation is lowest in:• technical development

• In terms of occupational balance, women also make up:• of the legal workforce• of broadcast management• in business Management• of distribution, sales and marketing

• Women also make up only of creative development occupations including script writing, directing and producing

39%

52%

45%

36%

25%

(2%)

(52%)(68%)

Source: Skillset Employment Census (2009)

UK Economy by Gender and Age

Age Group All workforce

% % %16 - 24 13 13 14

25 - 34 22 22 21

35 - 49 37 37 38

50+ 28 28 27

Source: LFS, ONS July 2009 – June 2010

TV Industry by Gender and Age

Age Group

All workforce

% % %16 - 24 7 7 9

25 - 34 26 21 36

35 - 49 36 41 40

50+ 20 30 16

Source: Skillset Creative Media Workforce Survey (2010)

Gender Drain

• Women are under-represented in older age categories:

• In TV 71% of men compared with 56% of women are 35 years or older;

• In the wider economy 65% of both men and women are 35 years or older.

Sources: Skillset Creative Media Workforce Survey (2010) and LFS, ONS July 2009 – June 2010

Sources: Skillset Creative Media Workforce Survey (2010) and LFS, ONS July 2009 – June 2010

• Unlike the wider labour market, but similarly to the Creative Media workforce overall, women in TV are less likely than men to be:

• married or in a long-term relationship

• have dependent children

…and at what cost?

= 54% = 70%

= 26% = 33%

Compared with 42% of the workforce across the UK economy who have dependent children.

= 63% = 52%

Qualifications and Training:

• % working in TV with a graduate qualification:

• % working in TV with a postgraduate qualification:

• % who have taken up training:

= 27% = 12%

Overqualified, overworked but underpaid

= 70% = 54%

Source: Skillset Creative Media Workforce Survey (2010)

Overqualified, overworked but underpaid

Working patterns:

• Overall, around a quarter of the TV workforce is freelance (28%). 41% of freelancers are women.

• Women freelancers work longer working weeks than men. Freelancers working more than 40 hours/week on average:

= 75% = 59%

Sources: Skillset Employment Census (2009) and Skillset Creative Media Workforce Survey (2010)

Earnings:

• Women on average earn less a year than their male colleagues in the TV sector;

• Nearly four fifths of the TV workforce (38%) said that they had worked unpaid in the industry at some point in their career. Women (43%) are more likely than men (32%) to have undertaken unpaid work in the past.

= £33,900 = £39,300

Overqualified, overworked but underpaid

Source: Skillset Creative Media Workforce Survey (2010)

Summary: Women working in TV

• Numbers of women are reducing overall;

• 6x the number of women than men have left the sector in the last 3 years;

• Women are still underrepresented in key jobs;

• Women are younger than the UK work profile;

• There is an under-representation of women over 49;

• Women are more qualified and are paid less;

• Women are more likely to have undertaken unpaid work during their career.

New Research Activity

• Skillset Creative Media Workforce Survey 2010 report to be published imminently

• Revision of ‘Women in Creative Media’ thematic report to update on results of Skillset’s 2010 Creative Media Workforce Survey

• Skillset is co-funding/supervising a PhD student to explore the recent fall out of skills from the industry – particularly women

Sources• Skillset (2009, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000)

Employment Census• Skillset/WFTV (2009) Why Her• Skillset (2010, 2008) Creative Media Workforce Survey• Skillset (2006) Balancing Children and Work in the Audio

Visual Industries• Skillset (2009/10) Strategic Skills Assessment for the Creative

Media Industries• Skillset/UK Film Council (2008, 2005) Feature Film

Production Workforce Survey

All these documents can be found at: www.skillset.org/research