Equalities @ EECS

Source: www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/27/sexism-film-industry-stories

Quotes:

“The director is considered the general, and just like in the military, they still can’t picture anyone not born with the Y chromosome with that title. The industry still insists on telling most stories from a male point of view and even if women write male-driven fare, they’re assumed to be less competent at it.”

“The figures support the idea that men are perceived mainly as the directors. This conditioning affects women as much as men, and therefore some women looking to hire directors may think about the men out there before women.”

“I have experienced sexism at work. Most of the time it’s a refusal to do what you’ve asked, or to doubt the legitimacy of the instruction.”

“Until recently, women represented less than 1% of all cinematographers. Now there are many more, but progress has been slow and double standards persist. I’ve heard, for example, that if a male director is being picky, people say he has a strong vision. With a woman, people will say she is being difficult. It’s also common to assume that kindness is a sign of weakness. The tendency is to idolise directors who are arrogant and dismissive in the way they wield their power. … Women directors have traditionally found more opportunities in independent cinema, where the focus is more on making good films than box office.”

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2015/sep/24/67-of-europeans-dont-believe-women-have-the-skills-to-be-scientists

Source of source: http://www.loreal.com/media/press-releases/2015/sep/the-loreal-foundation-unveils-the-results-of-its-exclusive-international-study

Quote:

“Based on the responses recorded in the study, it would seem that overall 67% of Europeans think that women do not possess the required skill set in order to achieve high-level scientific positions (the figure is 64% specifically for the UK). Meanwhile, in China an absolutely staggering 93% believe that women aren’t cut out to be scientists.”

“When asked what impeded women’s rise to the top, both men and women said cultural factors were important. However, 45% of women believed that men blocked women’s progression, and 44% of them (compared with 37% of men) said there was a problem in the support management provided for women.”

“Despite all the negative connotations around women in science, those questioned actually thought there were more of us female scientists out there than there really are. They estimated that women hold 28% of the highest academic functions within scientific fields across the European Union. The reality? There are around 11% women at the top.”

“Any female scientist may or may not be impeded by men and management (as the answers suggest), but she will definitely be surrounded by a crowd of people who do not believe she is likely to succeed. If the people she talks to in the cinema queue, in the bar or the student union are prone to say ‘really?’ when she admits to loving science and aiming high, the drip-drip-drip of negativity is liable to sap self-confidence and aspiration.”

Quote: Ever looked around a boardroom and wondered where all the women are? Me too. The reality is that while the number of women on FTSE boards has nearly doubled over the past four years, and there are countless studies extolling the virtues of diversity on decision-making, inclusivity and business performance, very few companies can truly say, “we do diversity well.”

Despite recent progress on gender diversity, organisations continue to struggle with turning good intention into positive action. Based on my seventeen years in recruitment, I’ve found that three factors are keeping talented women out of the boardroom.

Read on at www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2015/sep/01/the-three-things-holding-women-back-at-work

Source: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/aug/24/guilt-quitting-sexist-workplaces-discrimination-women

Quote:

“This autumn marks five years since the Equality Act was passed – an all-encompassing bill taking in older acts concerning pay, race, gender and disability discriminations – making our right to work free from prejudice enshrined in the law. The tricky part is that it’s often hard to implement. With the lack of an obvious offence, it’s often a case of being crushed by a thousand tiny micro-aggressions … To preserve sanity, it’s often easier to quit a job than deal with the labour-intensive process of pursuing a grievance. But not being able to impact on a toxic workplace environment, to subvert and change from within, can be a concern that many women share when leaving a sexist workplace. Compounding the feeling of failure on leaving is the awareness that remaining or future female employees will face the same treatment.”