Scoping Study into the Lack of Women Screenwriters in the UK

A Report Presented to the UK Film Council

This study was produced for the UK Film Council and undertaken by IES. This study, for the first time, gathers known literature, industry and education data, and interview feedback specifically on the participation of female screenwriters writing for film in the UK. The key focus of the study is to explore the scale of any imbalance and the possible reasons for it.

The research stems from concern raised by the UK Film Council and Women in Film and Television that there were very few female applicants for the '25 words or less' Development Fund programme and very few women screenwriters generally on UK feature films.

Another early indicator of a gender imbalance in the profession came from the smaller number of qualified females applying for Royal Holloway's accredited MA in Feature Film Screenwriting. As a small-scale scoping study, the research was intended, not to find definitive answers to the questions posed, but to highlight priority areas for further research and future action.