THE ROLE OF AUDIOVISUAL AUTHORS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER EQUITY IN THE AUDIOVISUAL INDUSTRY
During the Annual Congress of AVACI held in the city of Seoul, South Korea, from May 17th to May 19th, 2022, the beginning of a space to show and think about gender inequality in the audiovisual industry was carried out.
As from such beginning, a working group was created stating the AVACI GENDER space, where we will reflect all the studies and assessments on the several issues that are subsumed in the concept, such as the inequity in the spaces occupied by women at the labor level and by audiovisual creators, but also about sexist and sexual violence that refer to issues other than labor, power, etc.
We are aware that, despite the efforts and changes in some legislations, the inequality of women and diversities is still very important around the world in almost every professional and leading fields. In our working area, we have not yet been able to break the so-called “glass ceiling” and the incorporation of female authors into the audiovisual world continues to be very limited.
We met not only to talk about the situation of each of the member countries but also to start thinking about the possible and desirable tasks that we can undertake from our organizations in order to make the problem even more visible and carry out actions that help achieve the fair 50/50 that we had proposed from different international forums for the year 2020 and that today remains un fulfilled.
A large part of our associations have individual areas or commissions from which the issue of gender and diversity is addressed. We consider that the creation of AVACI GENDER is important to disseminate and exchange statistical information and activities that allow us to raise awareness and develop strategies to collaborate in the global resolution of these issues.
We know that the inequality we are talking about does not appear around the specific issue of authors’ rights which, once acquired, does not discriminate regarding the gender of persons. But we do know that the lack of opportunities granted to women in the audiovisual world field makes female authors have reduced access to the field of fiction, series and television, for example. And we find a greater number of them in the documentary that carries a much lower figure in authors’ rights.
Is it verified in the same way in
different countries?
This would be, for example, an issue we could consider and perhaps influence in its assessment and possible changes.
Of course, there will be other themes that may appear according to the policies of each association that are crossed by issues crossed by our cultural diversities. This AVACI GENDER working group will be able to put them in common, compare them and prepare documents to be provided to future legislations.
It is essential at this stage to gather statistics and carry out comparative work as well as to exchange possible legislation in authors’ associations of countries that have made greater progress than others and that may serve as examples to adapt for the associations that are just beginning or about to start.
We have the opportunity to think jointly from AVACI how to make this become an obligation in an increasingly diverse but also more unequal world. In a contemporaneity increasingly dominated by the image, the actions of our authors’ societies that work for the expansion and safeguarding of our rights, should contain these lines of work nowadays.
