Following the statement from the Irish Film Board with regards to gender equality in Irish film, Women In Film and Television Ireland have issued the following statement of their own:
Women In Film and Television Ireland welcomes the statement from the Irish Film Board today and the commitment of the IFB to redress the gender imbalances which exist throughout the industry.
On a day that the Waking The Feminists movement is drawing our collective attention to the under-representation of female playwrights in the Abbey’s centenary programme, it is incumbent on all of our national institutions to take stock and re-assess the extent to which they are providing a platform for women’s creativity, vision, and experience.
We are more than half the population. It is unacceptable that our voices be unheard and our stories undervalued.
The Irish film industry is overwhelmingly male-dominated, with only 13% of produced screenplays in the period 1993 to 2013 written by Irish women.
While we suspect that this underrepresentation is replicated in many other areas, including directing, producing, editing, acting, animation and design, we simply do not have the statistics to confirm that this is the case. We welcome the declared intention of the Irish Film Board to gather and publish this much-needed information. We welcome their intention to act.
We await with interest the forthcoming IFB strategy which will prioritise gender equality and diversity and look forward to being consulted during its development.
We are encouraged to hear that the IFB. is committed to taking a leadership position and raising this issue with broadcasters, guilds and representative organisations. We hope that these parties will be active participants in taking vital action to significantly improving womens’ representation.
As we approach the centenary of 1916, the time has come for all of our national institutions to espouse the values of the Irish Republic envisaged in the Easter proclamation, which, a century ago, guaranteed “equal opportunities to all its citizens”.