#FIRSTLOOK: WOMEN IN VIEW CALLS FOR CANADIAN FILM AND TELEVISION INDUSTRY CHANGES

Women in View, whose mission is the achievement of greater gender equity and inclusion in Canadian media, issued Calls to Action today directed at the decision-makers in the Canadian film and television industry. Based upon the findings of the Women in View On Screen Report (WIVOS23) issued in August, the organization outlined eight urgent and necessary steps that must be made to see substantive movement toward an equitable industry. The Calls to Action were presented at this year’s St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival (SJIWFF), the same festival that supported the launch of the first On Screen Report in 2012.

The Calls to Action include:
* Commit to equity within parity, holding organizations accountable to equity as a practice, not an achievement.
* Ensure equity efforts are focused, intentional, and thorough.
* Focus on structural interventions to support Indigenous women and Indigenous gender diverse creatives.
* Create pathways to accelerate Black women and Black gender diverse creatives and to dismantle anti-Black racism.
* Explore and acknowledge the complexity and diversity of experiences within the umbrella of Women of Colour and gender diverse People of Colour.
* Audit data/measurement practices and motives.
* Create a funding system map and use it to evaluate progress.
* Implement sector-level interventions that make structural changes permanent and unavoidable.

Detailed actionable recommendations for these exigencies are available on the Women in View website.

“These Calls to Action are only a starting point,” comments Sharon McGowan, Chair of Women in View. “We call on decision-makers in the film and television industry to create their own public Calls to Action, and release them alongside detailed plans and timelines for putting them into practice.”

The results of WIVOS23, presented in August by Lead Consultant Lindsay Valve, clearly demonstrated a decrease overall in progress for women and gender diverse creatives made pre-pandemic, as shown through WIVOS2019 and WIVOS21. Indigenous Women, Black Women, and Women of Colour were the most significantly impacted and underrepresented.

Women in View is a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to strengthening gender representation and diversity in Canadian media both on screen and behind the scenes.

To access the full report, please go to the Women in View website or click here for English and here for French