Women in front of and behind the camera: Still struggling with inequality

Even though the past 50 years have seen a significant advance in women's living conditions and status in society as a whole, their depiction on screen has continued to reflect patriarchal stereotypes. Accordingly, female characters are in general younger than their male counterparts and more likely to be reduced to the role of wife, mother or girlfriend. One way to help guarantee that stories and perspectives portrayed on the screen are more true to life would be to encourage and support the presence of women in key positions in the film industry. However, even though almost as many female (44 %) as male (56 %) directors graduate from film schools, the average proportion of female directors in the industry is just around 20 %, with results varying from 5 % in Latvia to 30 % in Sweden, thus leaving gender equality still a long way off.