She Must Be Seeing Things! Gender disparity in camera department networks

Abstract

This paper reports on a network-based investigation of the gendered nature of work in the screen sector. Using nine years of Australian film and television production data, we explore how the networks of project-based collaboration might explain the disparities in the career trajectories of men and women. Our analysis finds that projects with men as directors tend to reproduce familiar teams to the exclusion of women, while projects led by women in key creative roles tend to make more space for women. Moreover, we find that there is a significant number of men who only work with men (regardless of whether they have worked with them before), but no corresponding group of women who only work with women. Our findings bear on proposed equity interventions, especially government policies designed to encourage women to enter the industry. Ultimately, even accounting for the statistical domination of men in the network, we argue that inequities in the organisation of the screen sector appear to be driven much more by the closed network behaviours of men than they are by the positioning or behaviour of women.