The Road to 5050: Gender Equality and the Irish Film Industry

Liddy, Susan

In December 2015, Screen Ireland (formally the Irish Film Board) announced an innovative gender policy, the Six Point Plan, which was implemented in 2016. It sought to achieve gender equality over three years, and key among its strategies was a 5050 gender equality target in funding. In April 2018, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) followed suite and published its Gender Action Plan. Both policies were broadly welcomed as a much-needed intervention in a male-dominated industry. How has the Six Point Plan translated into action over its three-year term and why did it fail to deliver full gender equality within the stated time? This chapter is concerned with understanding why a policy with radical potential failed to deliver. It will revisit the aims of that policy; the initiatives introduced during the period and the outcomes achieved. It will also examine Screen Ireland’s more recent stated support for “5050 by 2020” and evaluate whether this signals a new policy direction or if it merely indicates a continuity of aspirational support for gender equality more broadly. Similarly, the policy and progress of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) and its Gender Action Plan will be evaluated, notwithstanding the fact that it was developed later than that of Screen Ireland. The chapter will also appraise the input of professional and representative bodies such as the Writers Guild of Ireland (WGI), the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland (SDGI) and Women in Film and Television Ireland (WFT Ireland). It will tease out industry reaction and point to the direction that 5050 by 2020 might productively take if gender equality is to be achieved in the short to medium term.