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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

1. Introduction: The Extent of Gender Inequality in Film Screenwriting Work

Author : Natalie Wreyford

Published in: Gender Inequality in Screenwriting Work

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Women still stand a far less chance than men of becoming the screenwriter of a British film. The percentage of women’s involvement in film work across the globe hasn’t changed in decades. This chapter describes the problem that the rest of the book investigates. It presents quantitative data that has revealed the continued gender inequality in screenwriting, both in the UK and internationally, then explores what is known about who writes British films and outlines where screenwriting work fits into the larger filmmaking process. Introducing new empirical data from interviews with British screenwriters and their employers, this book casts a spotlight on the missing women and reveals that investigating the reasons for their absence can tell us much about the complex interlinking of gender and creative work.

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Footnotes
1
Calling the Shots is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) for the period of 2014–2018. You can find out more about the project on the following website: https://​www.​southampton.​ac.​uk/​cswf/​index.​page
 
2
A film is considered to have a ‘green-light’ when all the financing is committed and the project can move from the development phase to pre-production and production.
 
3
Auteur’ is the French word for ‘author’ and ‘auteur theory’ argues that in spite of the collaborative and industrial nature of filmmaking, the director’s creative voice is strong enough to be able to attribute the authorship of the film to him or her alone.
 
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Metadata
Title
Introduction: The Extent of Gender Inequality in Film Screenwriting Work
Author
Natalie Wreyford
Copyright Year
2018
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95732-6_1