Scotland’s for Me? The (gendered) salience of parental status and geographical location to experiences of working in film and television

In recent years, international scholarship and industry reports have exposed the inherent incompatibilities between the media sector’s working cultures and caring responsibilities, focusing particularly on women who remain disproportionately responsible for childcare. The ideal media worker—characte...

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Main Author: Susan Berridge
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University College Cork 2022-12-01
Series:Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media
Online Access:https://www.alphavillejournal.com/Issue24/HTML/ArticleBerridge.html
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author Susan Berridge
author_facet Susan Berridge
author_sort Susan Berridge
collection DOAJ
description In recent years, international scholarship and industry reports have exposed the inherent incompatibilities between the media sector’s working cultures and caring responsibilities, focusing particularly on women who remain disproportionately responsible for childcare. The ideal media worker—characterised by geographical mobility, autonomy, adaptability and total commitment to work—is highly at odds with the material realities of parents and carers. However, despite recognition of the salience of mobility to wider (gendered) patterns of exclusion of parents, there is little scholarship that critically scrutinises the significance of geographical location on their experiences of work. This article addresses this lack, contributing to wider debates around the need to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in the film and television workforce, which, in turn, is viewed as crucial to facilitating diverse representations, voices and perspectives on-screen. Using the Scottish screen sector as a case study, the article draws on a series of one-to-one interviews with parents – both men and women – who work, or have previously worked, in the film and television industries to explore the complex ways in which gender inequalities are mediated by both geographical location and caring responsibilities.
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spelling doaj.art-ee7859bbe4cc40f5a74a5492177ee2612022-12-22T04:24:07ZengUniversity College CorkAlphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media2009-40782022-12-0124647810.33178/alpha.24.04Scotland’s for Me? The (gendered) salience of parental status and geographical location to experiences of working in film and televisionSusan Berridge0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3251-1362University of Stirling, ScotlandIn recent years, international scholarship and industry reports have exposed the inherent incompatibilities between the media sector’s working cultures and caring responsibilities, focusing particularly on women who remain disproportionately responsible for childcare. The ideal media worker—characterised by geographical mobility, autonomy, adaptability and total commitment to work—is highly at odds with the material realities of parents and carers. However, despite recognition of the salience of mobility to wider (gendered) patterns of exclusion of parents, there is little scholarship that critically scrutinises the significance of geographical location on their experiences of work. This article addresses this lack, contributing to wider debates around the need to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in the film and television workforce, which, in turn, is viewed as crucial to facilitating diverse representations, voices and perspectives on-screen. Using the Scottish screen sector as a case study, the article draws on a series of one-to-one interviews with parents – both men and women – who work, or have previously worked, in the film and television industries to explore the complex ways in which gender inequalities are mediated by both geographical location and caring responsibilities. https://www.alphavillejournal.com/Issue24/HTML/ArticleBerridge.html
spellingShingle Susan Berridge
Scotland’s for Me? The (gendered) salience of parental status and geographical location to experiences of working in film and television
Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media
title Scotland’s for Me? The (gendered) salience of parental status and geographical location to experiences of working in film and television
title_full Scotland’s for Me? The (gendered) salience of parental status and geographical location to experiences of working in film and television
title_fullStr Scotland’s for Me? The (gendered) salience of parental status and geographical location to experiences of working in film and television
title_full_unstemmed Scotland’s for Me? The (gendered) salience of parental status and geographical location to experiences of working in film and television
title_short Scotland’s for Me? The (gendered) salience of parental status and geographical location to experiences of working in film and television
title_sort scotland s for me the gendered salience of parental status and geographical location to experiences of working in film and television
url https://www.alphavillejournal.com/Issue24/HTML/ArticleBerridge.html
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