The way is still long. In the fictions broadcast on television, women are far less numerous than men, both behind the camera - where the directors are only 12% - and on the screen where the female characters speak almost half as much as the men.
These are the conclusions of a study by the INA (National Audiovisual Institute) for 2008-2018, unprecedented in its scale and carried out in collaboration with the association "For Women in the Media" (PFDM), presented Thursday on the occasion of the annual report of the CSA on the representation of women in the media. It is published a few days after the shock wave caused to the Césars by the attribution of the price of the best realization to Roman Polanski, targeted by accusations of rape, which caused many protests, in particular among actresses.
" An upgrade "
To obtain the figure of 12%, INA researchers measured the proportion of female directors in all genres of fiction (animated films, series, films or TV films) scheduled for first-run or re-run on historic channels ( TF1, France 2, France 3, Canal +, France 5, Arte and M6) for ten years.
"The long trend shows an improvement, real, but which remains very limited: this proportion increased by almost five points between 2008 and 2018, passing from 10% to 15%, but the rise is not continuous, and declines have also been recorded, ”notes the INA in this study published in its Media Review.
French productions leave slightly more room for female directors (14% on average over the period) than their foreign counterparts and co-productions (11% on average).
The private student better than the public
The study notes a difference between the channels: the proportion of women is higher on TF1 (15.7%) and France 2 (14.3%) than on France 5 (9.3%) and France 3 (7, 4%), at the back of the pack. In general, private channels are better pupils than public ones, in particular thanks to TF1 and Canal +, on which the share of female directors has increased in recent years.
In 2018, private channels broadcast 20% of fiction directed by women, twice as much as on public channels.
France Télévisions, a driving force in terms of parity on the air with ambitious objectives for experts in particular, wishes to set up quotas for women directors. "I think we have to go a step further, we need quantified objectives for collection directors, + showrunners +, they are the ones who have their hands on history and that's where we can convey stereotypes, "explained the boss of the group Delphine Ernotte to deputies of the Delegation for Women's Rights during a hearing on Wednesday.
Low speaking times
Stereotypes that materialize in the short speaking times enjoyed by female fiction characters. Of the 54,000 fictions screened, female characters have only 35.4% of speaking time, compared to 64.6% for male characters.
This two-thirds / one-third ratio is close to that established with the same method (software developed by the INA) on all TV programs (including programs and information) between 2010 and 2018.
"The influence of the genre of the director (s) is a factor which influences the speaking time of women: the speaking rate of women reaches its lowest in fictions directed only by men, with 34.6% ", Notes the study. It exceeds the average of the general speaking time when the fictions are carried out only by women (38.2%) and is at the highest when men and women co-direct (40.8%).
For Laurence Bachman, president of the association PFDM, "gregarious reflexes are in place" in the community, reason for which she supports the idea of "temporary quotas", for a few years, and recommends conditioning the obtaining of public aid for parity.
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- Fiction
- Television
- Women
- Actress
- Parity