On the basis of risk: How screen executives’ risk perceptions and practices drive gender inequality in directing

Abstract

This paper explores how gendered perceptions of risk drive gender inequality. It does so by applying an Intersectional Risk Theory (IRT) framework to new empirical data on gender equality initiatives in the Canadian screen industries. The paper shows (1) that gendered risk perceptions constrain women directors’ work opportunities; (2) that the construction of gendered risk perceptions (“doing risk”) is shaped by the screen industry context and social inequalities generally; and (3) that practices of constructing risk perceptions can be disrupted and changed, which creates opportunities for a “re-doing” or “un-doing” of gendered perceptions of risk and offers new analytical perspectives onto the efficacy of gender equality initiatives. By interrogating how perceptions of risk inform decision-making, the paper contributes new understandings of the drivers of systemic and intersectional inequality as a defining characteristic of work and labor markets in the screen industries and in the creative industries more broadly.