Introduction
As in most European countries, women in Austria were relegated to the private sphere for a long time, occupied with taking care of the family home and children. This is not entirely a thing of the past: even today, around 77% of men are employed, while only 69% of women are. Around half of employed women work part-time, as opposed to around 11% of men (“Erwerbstätigkeit” 2019). For people with children under 15, the discrepancy is even bigger: 73% of women with children under 15 work part-time, but only 6% of men. This shows that child-rearing is still mostly women’s work in Austria. Additionally, compared to other EU countries, the gender pay gap is particularly big in Austria at 20%, the fifth-worst gap in the EU (“Gender-Statistik” 2019).
The film industry is a very specific field of work that warrants its own analysis. Global and national media industries and film industries show a variety of long-standing gender structures, hegemonic masculinities, and male-dominated gender stereotypes. Florian Krauß and Skadi Loist (2018) recently presented analyses of these industries in German-speaking countries. Research regarding gender ratios in the Austrian film industry does not have a long tradition. Two studies, conducted by FC Gloria and EWA, have broken ground providing selected data pertaining to the Austrian film industry. They are embedded in feminist policy and feminist research on gendered media industries (Loist 2018).
In 2015‚ FC Gloria,1 the Austrian network of women in the film industry, analyzed the subsidies given by two relevant institutions2 and the gender ratios in education.3 The data proved that most of the public funding is provided to male filmmakers and showed a gap between the numbers of female film students and women professionals in the film industry (“Statistik zum Genderbudgeting” 2015). Seven countries4 participated in the study on female directors launched by EWA, the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (2006–2013). This investigation demonstrated that women directors are underrepresented in spite of the strong number of female graduates from film schools. The data also proved that films by female directors receive less public funding than those directed by men (EWA 2017).
Based on lobbying measures initiated by FC Gloria, in 2016 the Austrian parliament agreed on a resolution (“Entschließungsantrag” 2016) that called for scientific gender research in the Austrian film industry, particularly to evaluate the allocation of public funding. In further consequence, the Austrian Film Institute (Österreichisches Filminstitut; ÖFI) and Federal Chancellery Division II—Arts and Culture (Bundeskanzleramt (BKA)—Sektion II Kunst und Kultur) contracted the University of Vienna Department of Sociology, notably the authors Eva Flicker (project lead) and Lena Lisa Vogelmann, to realize the first independent and comprehensive study on gender in the Austrian film industry. This was the starting point for the Austrian Film Gender Report5 2012–2016 (AFGR). The authors of this article conducted the study between 2017 and 2018.
The instructions and goals of the AFGR were as follows:
- To assess gender-related inequalities,
- To deliver solid data regarding gender ratios in the Austrian film industry over a research period of the previous five years,
- To raise public and political awareness concerning gender inequality in the film industry,
- To provide a solid basis for effective initiatives to reduce gender inequality,
- To provide a solid data basis for the evaluation of implemented initiatives.
The research focus for the AFGR was defined for gender effects within the following four key areas in the film industry:
- 1.Representation of women off screen (fundings, jobs, payments, etc.),
- 2.Gender representation on screen,
- 3.Gender visibility at Austrian film festivals (programming, juries, awards),
- 4.Gender structures in film education at university level.
The following section will begin with explanatory remarks on the public funding structure of the Austrian film industry, details about the data basis used for the analysis, and methodological reflections on how to measure gender in films. The core part of the text covers selected results from each of the four AFGR focus areas. Finally, measures implemented since 2018 for fairer gender balance are presented and discussed. The conclusions lead to emphasizing the necessity of both further research and political decisions.
Explanatory Remarks
Austria’s film industry is based on public funding. As in many other European countries, private film funding has no tradition in Austria. The most relevant funding institutions are nationwide funds, such as Film Industry Support Austria (Filmstandort Austria; FISA),6 the BKA, and the ÖFI. In addition, the public Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (Österreichischer Rundfunk; ORF) and the Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications (Rundfunk und Telekom RegulierungsGmbH; RTR) fund TV programs (and sometimes film releases). In spite of being a comparatively small country, Austria is organized federally; that is, there are nine states within the country. Each of the states has its own funding program—also for film and art.
In short, the public funding structure in Austria is complex. There are no overarching eligibility criteria that apply to all institutions. To complicate things further, most filmmakers apply to more than one institution for funding. Most of the produced films receive at least some public funding. While all funding is to be accounted for publicly, there is no regulation that ensures such accounting must include gender budgeting or a gendered analysis of public spending. Frequently, “gender” is not even a category among the data, and this practice is changing only slowly.
Data Basis for the AFGR, 2012–2016
The ÖFI collected the data analyzed in the AFGR, with the exception of data regarding the Film Academy Vienna (Institute for Film and Television of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna), which was supplied by the Academy itself. The research team was provided with the collected data for analysis encompassing the 2012–2016 research period. Summarized below, several decisions and selections were to be made for statistical sampling. As data collection was incomplete in some respects, several blind spots remain which could be addressed in a subsequent research project.
With regard to data on public funding, the ÖFI requested all Austrian funding institutions to submit their data on feature-length films (70 minutes or longer) funded between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2016. Data were collected on close to 1300 film projects, each having received funding for at least one of four different project stages (script development, project development, production, dissemination and marketing). The data referred not only to the amount of funding, but also to the department staff and their calculated fees. Depending on the project stage, up to 16 different departments within the film staff were included in the AFGR. Although most of the analyzed projects were movie projects, we were also able to obtain data on TV projects from the RTR for the period of January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2016.7
One hundred Austrian feature films8 released between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2016, were analyzed with a standardized questionnaire including approximately 300 items concerning off-screen and on-screen issues. About one-third of the 35 Austrian filmfestivals delivered data on the feature-length films (fictional and documentary) that were programmed between 2012 and 2016, the directors or teams responsible for programming, the juries and prizes awarded. The Film Academy provided data on gender structures in film education and on students over several levels, ranging from applications to its programs to BA and MA graduations. The data on the teaching staff comprised the permanent staff and full professors over the years 2012–2016.
Gender Data—How to Measure Gender in Films
Measuring gender, gender relations, and gender structures evokes theoretical challenges and necessities of actionable research practice. We thus decided to apply a binary statistical logic and wording (women/men, female/male), supplementing it with a third, non-binary, category to the extent to which the data collection also made use of it. Not only did the research project depend on the data that were provided mostly in the male-female binary. Additionally, the aim was to make gendered power relations clearly visible in the spirit of strategic essentialism in research, which reduces gender to the binary in order to make the binary social structures comprehensible. Ultimately, it is a feminist goal to dismantle unjust (binary) gendered structures in the film industry.
To make gender ratios visible, it becomes necessary to analytically gender film, film projects, and teams. The methodological approaches used in the AFGR are described below. Funding is allocated to individual film projects and not to one or more persons. Therefore, arithmetic methods are required to connect gender to a position or to several (key) positions held in the ...