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In India, the 2012 Delhi gang rape case catalyzed protests for women’s rights, particularly in regard to their safety. These demands were rekindled with vigor anew with the eruption of the #MeToo movement. In the Indian film industry, the most visible change appeared in the gradual increase of films with womenleads. But behind the scenes, there has been comparatively less change in female representation. Currently, approximately less than 10% of film directors in India are women. Considering the impor­ tance of having stories about women being made by women, in this article I examine the factors that hinder women’s entrance and tenure in the Mumbai film industry. I argue that a composite of concerns, including but not limited to reputability and personal security, thwarts women’s progress in the industry. I base my con­ clusions on interviews with women and men working in the film industry, conducted in Mumbai in 2017. I use the framework of the Ambivalent Sexism Index developed by psychologists Glick and Fiske in 1996, and revised in 2013, (1996, 2001, 2013) to examine my interviewees’ encounters with hostile and benevolent sexism. This article complicates our understanding of the reasons that limit the work of women beyond explanations of overt discrimination.

This article examines the work of intimacy coordinators on television drama and film sets and the rise of this new role in the screen industry from a policy and production studies perspective. Since HBO made the employment of an intimacy coordinator mandatory on all productions with scenes of sex, nudity, and physical intimacy in 2018, intimacy coordination has become an industry standard and expectation. Through interviews and analysis of production practices, this article explores how intimacy coordinators change and challenge established production practices on and off set and interrogates the reasons behind the emergence of this role in the screen industry. It situates intimacy coordination in the context of recent industry policies and initiatives that promote equality and diversity, and counter harassment and abuse in the post-Weinstein era. It analyses this role on relation to changing production and distribution models and regimes in the era of VOD portals. The article argues that intimacy coordination is not only a catalyst for reforming practices on set, but a way for the screen industry to negotiate contemporary and historic concerns about sexual harassment and abuse, comply with recent policy and funding requirements, and a mechanism for mitigating economic and reputational risk to productions.

This article uses Acker’s concept of inequality regimes to analyze qualitative research findings on work-life balance and gender equality for women in British television production. Female survey respondents, focus group participants, and interviewees spoke of their subjective experience of gendered work practices which disadvantage women as women. These findings build on existing research showing gender disadvantage in the industry, leading to loss of human capital and a narrowing of the range of creative experience. They also show that growing numbers of women are seeking alternative modes of production, at a time of increased awareness of inequality. Such alternatives suggest that change is possible, although it is strongly constrained by organizational logics and subject to continued resistance, in line with Acker’s framework of analysis. Visibility of inequalities is the key to supporting change.

Acting, especially in the screen arts industry, is a job where women are subjected to pronounced and widely accepted socio-cultural aesthetic ideals within an industry that has become renowned for its tolerance for and justifications of sexism and sexualized violence. However, there is a limited amount of scholarship that examines actors and acting from a work and employment perspective. Drawing on the literature on work insecurity and gender inequities in cultural work, this article examines the screen industry from the perspective of women actors in a semi-peripheral location in Canada. This is a cohort that has managed to remain in the industry, despite high levels of attrition. Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews, our participants identify a range of strategies they employ (toughness, silence, humour, refusal, creative resistance) to respond to workplace sexism and gender-based constraints as they try to balance their creative agency with career sustainability. Participants emphasized that finding multiple outlets for realizing creative agency is crucial to counteracting everyday sexism and remaining in the industry.

This chapter provides a contextual account of the rise of #MeToo as an global gender-equality campaign supporting those affected by sexual transgressions. Originally articulated by African-American civil rights activist Tarana Burke in 2006, the slogan ‘me too’ was meant as a rallying cry to support young minority ethic survivors of sexual abuse. Years later, social media would turn Burke’s motto into a byword for the global #MeToo movement. The chapter chronicles the events surrounding #MeToo’s inception, including Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s sexual exploitation scandal in 2017, and The New York Times and The New Yorker exposés of his serial offending within the film industry. It also examines the narratives of countless survivors and #MeToo campaigners, including high-profile cases such as those of Rose McGowan, Alyssa Milano, Mimi Haleyi, Jessica Mann and Zelda Perkins. The chapter then critically considers the growth and international significance of #MeToo as well as its inherent shortcomings.

The study is a history project and is concerned with tracking the impact of #MeToo in the South African Film and Television industry in South Africa. Its main premise were the findings made public by a South African organization, Sisters Working in Film and Television (SWIFT) in 2017, that found that sexual harassment in the television and film industry was not just a norm but a crisis. The core focus of the study was on the development and impact of the #MeToo movement, which entailed investigating the manner in which women reacted to the hashtag (#MeToo), the reaction of their male counterparts, as well as the reaction and actions taken by the various bodies, institutions and organisations in the Film and Television industry, which included; broadcasters and production houses alike. This study begins by giving a concise background of the movement by firstly, historicising various female-led movements and comparing and contrasting them with the rise of digital movements or digital activism. The historicisation involves a brief comparison of past and present women-led activism, as well as a brief review of other hashtags like #AmINext and #Enough, on which #MeToo has had an influence. It goes on to investigate the development of #MeToo movement and to discuss the responses of the industry and individuals to the movement. The study embarked on a data collection quest by interviewing eleven female television and film practitioners in South Africa. Their ages ranged from 20 to 55. The findings of the research revealed that female practitioners were still being harassed post #MeToo, although subtly. The lack of unity amongst women in the sector was cited as one of the reasons behind the ongoing harassment. Gender parity and equity was also still lacking in the South African television and film industry. This study emerged in the midst of activism and scholarship seeking to unravel the norms of South African sexual harassment and rape culture against women. Thus, the study focused on the changes and transformations brought about by the hashtag within the industry. With South Africa’s historical background and the current circumstances around Gender Based Violence (GBV), this study was concerned with tracking whether or not digital activism had in some way been able to aid change and transformation. In particular, this study looked at the impact of the MeToo phenomenon on the women in the industry, the extent to which it empowered them, what they began to say and how they began to act. The study also explored South Africa’s ‘rape culture’ as South Africa has been proclaimed the ‘worlds rape capital’. It reflected on the colonial rule as the perpetuation of patriarchy and male entitlement over female bodies. Patriarchy in the industry was also confirmed by the findings and through data analysis, as one of the key factors in the emergence of #MeToo in South Africa, and in the utilisation of the hashtag by women in the sector to speak up against sexual harassment.