Today, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)9 on gender equality in the audiovisual sector. The Recommendation aims at including a gender equality perspective in all branches and activities of the audiovisual sector to respond to issues such as the lack of awareness of the prevalence of gender inequality, gender bias, the unequal distribution of funding and investment, the lack of willingness to invest on financially ambitious female-created content, the unbalanced support for dissemination of female-created content, the low representation of women at key positions in the audiovisual sector, unequal pay, the failure to support parents and carers, and the unequal access to employment opportunities.
Measures to implement the Recommendation should include “supporting awareness-raising initiatives and campaigns on combating gender stereotypes, including hate speech and sexism in the audiovisual sector” and “promoting non-stereotypical images, and avoiding sexist advertising, language and content which could lead to discrimination on grounds of sex, incitement to hatred and gender-based violence”.
The Recommendation includes references to the Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy 2014-2017 and the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, and has an Appendix with “Guidelines for improving gender equality in the audiovisual sector: measures for implementation” and another Appendix with “Recommended monitoring methods and performance indicators”.
