And … action? Gender, knowledge and inequalities in the UK screen industries

Eikhof, D. R. , Newsinger, J., Luchinskaya, D. and Aidley, D. (2019) And … action? Gender, knowledge and inequalities in the UK screen industries. Gender, Work and Organization, 26(6), pp. 840-859. (doi: 10.1111/gwao.12318)

Abstract

This article explores how a knowledge ecology framework can help us better understand the production of gender knowledge, especially in relation to improving gender equality. Drawing on Law, Ruppert, and Savage, it analyses what knowledge of gender inequality is made visible and actionable in the case of the UK screen sector. We show: (i) that the gender knowledge production for the UK screen sector operated with reductionist understandings of gender and gender inequality, and presented gender inequality as something that needed evidencing rather than changing; and (ii) that gender knowledge was circulated in two relatively distinct circuits, a policy‐ and practice‐facing one focused on workforce statistics and a more heterogeneous and critical academic one. We then discuss which aspects of gender inequality in the UK screen industry remained invisible and thus less actionable. The article concludes with a critical appreciation of how the knowledge ecology framework might help better understand gender knowledge production, in relation to social change in the UK screen sector and beyond.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Eikhof, Professor Doris Ruth
• Authors: Eikhof, D. R., Newsinger, J., Luchinskaya, D., and Aidley, D.
• College/School: College of Arts > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
• Journal Name: Gender, Work and Organization
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 0968-6673
• ISSN (Online): 0968-6673
• Published Online: 12 December 2018
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 John Wiley and Sons Ltd
• First Published: First published in Gender, Work and Organization 26(6):840-859
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy