Page 137 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 6

CPS1850 Paula Alves de Almeida et al.

Women’s participation in Brazilian cinema over
the last two decades: Evidences based on
statistical analysis

Paula Alves de Almeida, Denise Britz do Nascimento Silva, José Eustáquio
Diniz Alves, Antonio Etevaldo Teixeira Junior

National School of Statistical Sciences – ENCE/IBGE

Abstract
Cinema prevails in entertainment worldwide and grounds visual patterns that
dictate fashion references, behaviours, lifestyles, and the way social
representations are constructed. This paper presents an analysis of women’s
participation in key functions in the crews of Brazilian feature films released
between 1996 and 2016. It uses statistical modelling techniques to investigate
if there is an association between the sex of film directors and scriptwriters
with those of the individuals working in other key functions (such as
cinematographer, producer, protagonist) and with other film characteristics
(such as genre). The presence of women in preeminent functions in Brazilian
films has increased in the last decades, but is still low in comparison with men’s
participation. The results indicate there is an important relationship between
women directors and writers with those in other key behind-the-scenes roles.
The probability of a film being directed by a women increases when the film
also has female producers and scriptwriters. Similarly, the probability of a film
being written by a women increases when the film also has female directors
and producers.

Keywords
Gender; Film labour market; Logistic regression

1. Introduction
Cinema carries the ideals and values of the social groups that are in charge
of its production, and reflects the relations and hierarchies of the society which
it belongs. The low representation of women in cinema would be a reflection
and, at the same time, it would reinforce the existing gender inequalities in
society.
As in other areas of the labour market, the number of women working in
the film business is increasing nowadays, but an important question still to be
answered is if women already hold decision-making positions in this area.
According to Martha Lauzen (2019), that develops the annual study The
Celluloid Ceiling, in 2018 women accounted for 8% of directors working on
the top 250 domestic grossing films in the USA, 3 percentage points below
from 11% in 2017, and 1 percentage point below the 9% achieved in 1998.

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