Technical Change

I've moved to WordPress

2009-01-23T06:33:00.000-08:00

I'm now blogging regularly over on my consultancy website, iKnowHow (powered by WordPress).

The focus is technology and leadership, rather than purely gender, but if you've enjoyed any of the blog posts here on Technical Change, you'll hopefully like the new stuff.

Come by and say hello!

How to protect yourself against cyber-abuse

2008-06-13T06:26:00.000-07:00

Listening to an excellent seminar from the Guardian's Future of Journalism series on the very depressing experience of women writers on the web.

Not surprisingly, feminist writers get the most extreme harassment, but other writers (remember Kathy Sierra?) are by no means immune.

Guardian journalist Jemima Kiss gives some great tips for protecting yourself against specific cyber-abusers: get a good developer (or yourself) to identify the "troll" that's harassing you and configure your site so that (a) your page appears to them as if their comments are being posted when they aren't or (b) your page loads so unbearably slowly that they get bored and go away.

Tips from other speakers include making sure that comment moderation is switched on (or indeed that comments are switched off entirely) and only accepting comments from people with a genuine identity/ email address.

Women 2.0

2008-06-13T03:15:00.000-07:00

Just came across this great site. Misbehaving gives an insight into the minds of digital visionaries like Danah Boyd and Caterina Fake. Read and be inspired!

The best mentoring project in the sector...probably

2008-06-05T06:52:00.000-07:00

Yay! Technical Change has received an award for mentoring from Skillset and the UK Film Council. I picked up the award last month at the AVE-DP wrap party, on behalf of Women in Film & Television.

This pic shows me with Radio & TV presenter Andrea Oliver who was there in all her gorgeousness to hand over a kiss and bunch of flowers (no money, sadly).

It's great to see Technical Change recognised as a project that's genuinely moved things forward for women working on the technical side of film, TV and new media.

At last!

2008-03-07T01:19:00.000-08:00

As part of the inimitable Bird’s Eye View film festival, which opened at London's BFI Southbank last night, there'll be a panel discussion this Sunday 9 March at the ICA on the difficulties of balancing children with a career in film/TV/video.

The panel will be chaired by filmmaker Parminder Vir and includes directors Martha Fiennes and Gaby Dellal as well as Kate Elliot, Diversity Officer at BECTU.

What makes this event different is that it's backed by a study from Skillset and Women in Film & TV and sets out not only to discuss the issues but to actually agree actions to take to ease the difficulties faced by parents in the audio-visual industries.

For more information and booking see the Bird's Eye View website.

New Year's Resolutions

2008-01-11T03:25:00.000-08:00

(1) Put Technical Change programme to bed (LOVE that ESF paperwork!)
(2) Move onwards and upwards to other exciting things
(3) Update blog

Even though our ESF-funded programme has drawn to a close, the debate about gender and technology still interests me. Especially as I watch 16 month old Lila (with her Israeli engineering DNA) obsess over cars and train engines.

Is there a point where this will stop?
Will that be anything to do with us?
How do we help Lila do what she's best at without laying preconceptions and stereotypes on her?

So, this blog is gonna stay open for now. There's still some thinking to be done, and I'll try and do it here when I get the chance.

A change for the better

2007-10-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

Technical Change has now closed, with some great success stories and interesting findings. I'll post the full report here as soon as I get a mo to write it!

In the meantime, you can always read the cockle-warming testimonies from the mentees.

Career breaks can cost us dearly

2007-09-12T06:29:00.000-07:00

Chastening reading from a new book by Joanna Grigg: as reported by the Observer et al last Sunday, Collapsing Careers claims that 30,000 women in the UK are sacked, demoted or made redundant every year due to pregnancy discrimination.

Having seen two of my friends suffer such a fate in the past few months, I can believe that figure.

Sugar and spice and all things...?

2007-08-08T03:05:00.000-07:00

Had a great chat the other day with Angela and Claire from Salford Business School's GATE project (no dedicated website).

GATE looks at the relationship between gender and age in the IT industry and Angela and Claire have carried out a load of interviews with women working in the sector. Some of the stories of bullying and harassment from male colleagues are truly harrowing.

We talked about the experience in general for women working in all-male teams. One of the most successful female DPs I know is the sort of person who takes any sexist remarks in her stride and probably doesn't even notice them. Another DP colleague is much more sensitive.

There was a brilliant ad on a while ago with two guys in the loos at a club telling each other their hair looked nice. It was hysterical. Men just don't treat each other with kid gloves.

Women generally tend to be more supportive of each other - in face to face situations at least.

There are two issues here. Firstly, do we need to let men know that certain behaviour in the workplace, however "harmless", is simply unnacceptable (and I'm talking about a more holistic approach than "ooh, let's not sware: ladies present!" - there needs to be an understanding that women might have a different take on "bonding" behaviour)?

Secondly, it's a commonly held belief that you need a bit of arrogance to survive in film and TV, and especially so if you want people to follow your creative vision.

Are some people simply too "nice" to succeed?

Digital Women's Club launches in London

2007-07-25T05:10:00.000-07:00

Better late than never, it seems only good and proper to give a plug to some FREE web courses for women being run by Antersite in London under the banner of Digital Women's Club.

Three one-week courses in Flash, Actionscript, Accessibility and Project Management are due to start in August 2007, followed up in September with assessment and networking.

The courses are open to women (aged 16+) living or working in London, who are under or unemployed; freelancers and start-ups are also eligible and childcare expenses are available.

See Antersite for details and availability.

Digital Media: Jobs For The Boys?

2007-06-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

Our session at the Lighthouse in Glasgow (invited by the lovely people at Urban Learning Space) went really well. Some of the attendees even said they'd been inspired to go off and kickstart their own related projects!

See the full write up here.

Time for some positive action

2007-06-10T04:41:00.000-07:00

Last year, Women in Film & Television responded to a DCMS inquiry into new media and the creative industries by asking the government to do the following to increase women’s contribution to the new media economy:

a.Research and map the employment of women in new media sectors

b.Encourage the establishment of women only networks

c.Encourage women-only training courses and mentoring schemes

d.Encourage the establishment of an online media resource for women to access knowledge, training and information

The DCMS report has now been published. Sadly there's no mention of women's position in digital technology, let alone a suggestion of any legislation or even guidelines to rectify the situation.

Why does this government persist in being 'light touch' when it comes to industry, yet so heavy-handed when it comes to our personal lives (cf. smoking, drinking and when babies should be playing with their toes)?

There's clearly an imbalance.

On a positive note, it's good to learn from the DTI that they are planning to launch a knowledge transfer network for the creative industries - in theory, this will provide a forum for debate and, hopefully, precipitate some positive change.

I'll be reviewing Technical Change and discussing ways to promote women to leading roles in digital media at The Lighthouse in Glasgow on 21 June. The seminar is open to all and further details can be found here.

The web - a powerful force for democracy, not

2007-06-10T03:17:00.001-07:00

Andrew Keen really does seem to have tapped some sort of zeitgeist (as if he needs any more publicity for his book, The Cult of The Amateur). In his rather bleak vision, Keen says that online communities gather to confirm their own prejudices, while knowledge of history and literature is drowned in a flood of self-obsessed blogs.

The internet is maturing, so it's hardly surprising that it's becoming tainted with many of the problems of old media (as well as creating some new ones of its very own). The same old hierarchies are playing out, the same voices are dominating.

If a woman does rise to the top, she tends to be like Tila Tequila. If a black man gets profiled, he's probably a rapper (although it's true, Barack Obama does have 100,000 friends on MySpace).

Despite all pretensions otherwise, the dominant voice of the web is still too white, male, middle-class and middle-youth.

If you want to give me some support (or throw tomatoes), I'll be speaking on the social value (or not) of social networks at 11.30am next Wednesday, 13 June, at the NMK Forum.

Hopefully we'll get the chance to give Technical Change a plug.

Is thirty per cent the tipping point?

2007-06-10T03:02:00.000-07:00

I recently took part in a live chat at FT.com asking why there aren't more women in the boardroom. The chat stemmed from a comment piece by London Business School's Lynda Gratton, who argues that 30 per cent of senior positions need to be held by women before an organisation can fully realise its potential female talent. Although Professor Gratton's background is financial, her argument would seem to make sense for all sectors, including media.

Oh, the irony!

2007-06-09T08:52:00.001-07:00

Word reaches us that a new TV quiz show called Win My Wage is finding it hard to secure female contestants - especially in technical areas.

No big surprise there, then.

A warm welcome to our 2007 placements

2007-05-25T04:52:00.000-07:00

We've another three fantastic placements under way this year.

Firstly, Central Saint Martin's graduate Laura Jean Healey will be working alongside DoP Seamus MacGarvey on various commercial assingments. Seamus's last film was Atonement, starring James McAvoy and Kiera Knightley; Laura has been watching Seamus at work on the grading.

Over in Plymouth, Digital media artist Birgit Binder is building an interactive web project under the guidance of HMC Interactive Director, Adam Montandon. We hope Birgit will be able to give a work-in-progress preview of this website at a Technical Change seminar at The Lighthouse in Glasgow on 21 June.

Meanwhile back in London, aspiring editor Anna Dick has been selected to work with Emma E Hickox as she edits The Time of Our Lives, another feature starring Kiera Knightley. Daily filming has only just begun so this is a great opportunity for Anna to gain experience right from the start of a project.

We expect Laura, Birgit and Anna to set up their own blogs in due course - watch this space for details!

Ladies Who Brunch

2007-05-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

Just back from the Everywoman Networking Brunch where there was lots of talk of mentoring and I got to speak to quite a few people about Technical Change, and the importance of visible women in leading roles.

The panellists, including solicitor and judge Karen Aldred, Financial Mail on Sunday Editor, Lisa Buckingham, IBM's Jacqueline Davey, GE's Isabel Fernandez and Citibank's Carolanne Minashi were all immensely dynamic women with a kindergarten-full of children between them and more titles after their names than you could shake a stick at.

It's probably best not to attribute quotes directly but one really good idea was "pyramid mentoring" whereby mentees go on to mentor women in positions below them and these in return mentor their subordinates (I hate to use hierachical terms but for the sake of brevity they work here - you get the picture).

Another good suggestion, re trying to encourage girls to consider less well-trodden career paths at school, was to relay the benefits of these "unusual" careers (eg, information technology, financial services) not just to the pupils but also to the parents and careers advisors - as it's these last two who can be the real barriers to change.

Plus ça change?

2007-05-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

Just came across this report online: Why Are There So Few Women in Games? It was published a couple of years ago, but suspect things have changed little since then.

For a positive look at what women are actually doing to change the games industry, here's a more recent thread on games for women by women.

If women designed games, would they be any different?

2007-05-02T01:49:00.000-07:00

Just heard Emma Westecott and Aleks Krotoski talking about women and games design on the BBC's Listen Again service. They were on Woman's Hour a couple of weeks back but needless to say in between feeding the baby and packing up to go away for the weekend I only caught snippets.

Emma suggested women could add a more human dimension to games, creatively. Woman's Hour presenter Miriam O'Reilly said the games industry was making efforts to increase the percentage of women developers. Would be interesting to hear more from anyone who knows about this.

We had no women developers apply to Technical Change and I was worried we'd been looking in the wrong places but Toby Barnes from Pixel-lab was telling me he's worked on university courses for games developers and there's a dearth of women applicants - so TC is not alone.

The Women in Games conference is doing something to address the issue. And apparently Electronic Arts is very supportive - here's the blurb about them hosting this year's US WIG.

How to ask for a pay rise

2007-03-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

One of our shortlisted Technical Change candidates just asked for advice on getting a pay rise, as she's been working for a long time on a low wage (glorified work experience - where have we heard of that before?). This reminded me of a WFTV event we wanted to do a while ago but never got around to. That's a shame as it's such an important subject and one area where women repeatedly undervalue themselves.

These were the pointers I gave - might be worth copying here just in case:

(1) Do some research to find out your market value - so ask around and try to find out what people in similar roles to yours are earning. If colleagues and peers won't disclose salaries/rates then try asking other facilities houses or recruitment agents, or looking online.

(2) It sounds silly, but practice what you want to say in the mirror before you have the actual conversation. Saying the words out loud: "I don't get out of bed for less than £1,000" - or whatever - really helps. It's a sort of neuro-linguistic programming.

(3) Don't accept the final offer right away if you can possibly avoid it. Say you need overnight/a few days to think about it. That'll stop you agreeing to something ridiculously low (which they'll probably try to get away with).

Asking for a pay rise is one of the toughest things and women are notoriously bad at it - so good luck!

Women speakers at tech events

2007-02-24T08:23:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of sorting out the interactive media placement. A friend of mine pointed me to Jason Kottke's blog where he lists the number of women speaking at upcoming web/tech conferences - the average proportion of women speakers seems to hover around 15 per cent and some conferences have the audacity to list 0 women speakers. I agree with Jason, it's laughable in this day and age that conference organisers can't find dynamic, observant, entertaining female contributors - but, sadly, the average figure must more or less reflect the proportion of women working in top jobs in the industry.

84% of women in broadcasting...

2006-12-30T11:46:00.000-08:00

...are childless. I'm sorry, I know it's another statistic. But I just wanted to throw that one in here. EIGHTY-FOUR per cent. Shocking. Not very representative of the population as a whole, is it?

Not surprisingly. the same survey (carried out by Broadcast magazine in November) reported that nearly 70 per cent of junior roles are filled by women, with approx 80 per cent of managing director/CEO positions going to men.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that if women are leaving the industry to have children (because they clearly can't have them while working in it), then they're not going to stick around long enough to become CEOs.

Shame, isn't it?

Mums don't blog

2006-12-30T09:51:00.000-08:00

At least, I don't think they do. Like they don't write screenplays or novels or compose music or paint monumental works of art. Like that play about Wordsworth's sister being equally talented but then someone had to do the housework... It's not because they don't want to. Or can't. They just don't have the time.

Hence the reason for so many blank weeks in the history of this blog. It's been a true commitment to the cause of Technical Change that I've had a baby just to test the waters re work, technology and motherhood (at least, that's what I told the boss).

How could this sweet little thing make me ill?

Aah!

Having Lila has been quite an eye opener. Not just the motherhood bit, though that's full on enough, but the pregnancy, which I imagined was going to involve me wandering around Melanie Blatt-style, comfortable in combats, or attending industry soirees in designer pregancy gear, having 'just the one' glass of champagne, and never needing to think of topics of conversation, because there'd always be that big lump under everyone's nose.

No, none of that. I was either overcome with nausea or throwing up all day every day for the whole nine months. Which made me think about how difficult things would be if I had a job where I was on location, or where the shifts were 12 hours, or where I had to lug heavy equipment about.

So, damn well done to all those women who do it. The thing is, they shouldn't be questioned or accused, they should be treated sympathetically, not patronised. Most of all, they should be allowed to get on with the job. How many men out there have gone to work with the hangover from hell? Being pregnant's not much different.

New placements up and running

2006-11-24T08:57:00.000-08:00

I'm back from maternity leave and pleased to say that we've now placed three candidates from the first round of Technical Change.

Aspiring sound designer Hannah Skrinar, 28, has spent five months at facilities house Molinare working on factual post-production projects including MacIntyre’s Underworld (Five), Holiday and Capturing The Royals (both BBC). Her assigned mentor was senior dubbing mixer George Foulgham.

Anna Carrington, 26, has wanted to be a cinematographer since she was a teenager. She is two months into her placement with Director of Photography, Henry Braham (Nanny McPhee, Bright Young Things). Henry is currently lighting His Dark Materials and Anna hopes to get on set soon.

Like Hannah, Rachel Gibson, 36, hopes to establish herself as a sound designer. She's working alongside dubbing mixer Adrian Rhodes at De Lane Lea post production - and looking forward to some Foley editing on the Frank Oz film, Death At A Funeral.

Congratulations all three!

Baby talk in the cutting room

2006-07-19T01:32:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to BBC foreign correspondent John Simpson! Not only is he a dad again at 61, he's also chatting about fatherhood at work - and discussing prams in the edit (see his diary entry for Thursday 16 Feb). It may seem like a tiny step, but the more crossover there is between work and home life, even if it's just in idle small talk, the better work-life balance we'll get.

We may have moved on - but is advertising stuck in a timewarp?

2006-06-23T04:31:00.000-07:00

One of the ongoing jokes in the BBC's recent hit cops-in-a-timewarp series, Life On Mars, was the outrageous way in which the '70s detectives treated their women colleagues - 'make us a cup of tea love' and regular breast puns were the order of the day. We like to feel we've moved on, so I had to check the date on seeing this ad in the 9 June 2006 edition of Broadcast:

Oh, bless her, poor love. She's wearing a suit, designer specs and all the trimmings of success but she's still trying to use a power tool to file her nails. And with that luciously pouty look of concentration on her face! Don't worry boys, with 'The Cameraman's Camera' you can be sure you won't make a similar mistake.

What's going on here? Any GCSE media studies student could tell you the underlying messages of this ad. I'm surprised they didn't stamp 'Guarenteed Oestrogen Free' on the page.

Are women (especially pretty ones) uncomfortable in the technical workplace? Do they tend to get things wrong (unlike men)? Do they frequently obsess with their appearance while the real business goes on elsewhere?

I'd be interested to know what any women working in the camera departments of film or TV think of this one.

Asking the Right Questions

2006-05-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

At the WFTV board meeting yesterday, Janet Fielding told us that Ros Gill, an academic at the LSE, is due to publish a book called "Gender And The Media" later this year (see synopsis here).

Apparently this is a wonderfully comprehensive review across Anglo-American media, looking at women's roles in front and behind the camera, and asking why the power balance remains firmly in favour of men, despite numerous campaigns, training initiatives etc aimed to help women succeed.

WFTV chair Sophie Balhetchet mentioned Steven Levitt's current bestseller, Freakonomics, which suggests that society can be seen completely differently if we start to ask different questions.

This made me wonder, are we asking the right questions when it comes to helping women succeed in the technical grades?

87% of women feel children put them at disadvantage

2006-05-18T06:05:00.000-07:00

Things have been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately; partly because I've been concentrating on getting the Technical Change programme up and running, and partly because I found out at Christmas that I'm pregnant.

Of course this is *thrilling* news but while having a baby is a really fantastic way to fully realise the issues facing many women at mid-career level in the industry (call it 'method' project management), it's also a shock to the system, physically and mentally, and the lethargy and confusion that sets in can hold you back a bit.

I'm moved to write by the publication this week of Broadcast/WFTV's "Women in Broadcasting Survey" which found, among other rather depressing stuff, that a whopping 87% of women felt that having children or other dependents puts them at a disadvantage in the broadcast industry (see Feature Editor Emily Booth's summary) . This compared to just 13% of women who felt having dependents would hold MEN back. As Emily Booth and others have commented, evidence like this shows that true equality could still be a long way off.

Interestingly, only 22% of the survey's respondents (1000+ women) said they actually had children, with many saying they were worried/scared/too over-worked to even think about becoming mothers.

One figure I'd have issue with was the finding that only 35% of women claimed to have experienced difficulties when returning to work after taking a break to have children. This figure must surely be skewed because a good chunk of those who HAD experienced difficulties would no doubt have given up the ghost and opted for a complete change of career rather than fight to be re-accepted into an industry that is intrinsically skewed against them.

Sadly there was no breakdown showing how conditions for women working in the technical grades compare to others, but I suspect the childcare/dependants issue is probably even more acute for women working in these areas. What do others think?

Welcome

2005-10-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

This week we had a bit of a party at Dave Stewart's Hospital to officially launch Technical Change - a new programme from Women in Film & Television (UK) backed by ESF Equal and supported by UIP and Channel 4. The programme wants to help women get on in the technical grades of film and TV - specifically camera/lighting, sound, special physical effects, interactive media and post-production. I got a bit drunk, gave a speech, and mentioned we were going to have a blog to allow the film/tv/media community (and others) discuss the issues. Then I realised, oh bugger, I'm going to actually have to do this. So here it is.