The U.S. feature film industry as a gendered organization, in which networks bound by race, gender, class and overt heterosexuality tend to exclude members of other groups. Hollywood filmmaking is a production process with high uncertainty about how to produce hits, resulting in discretion given to managers to use their personal networks to limit risk. This combination of organizational qualities limits diversity among filmmakers, such that previous research has shown women remain vastly underrepresented both on-screen and behind the camera. Crowdfunding has recently emerged as an alternative to corporate funding and traditional venture capitalism, where people donate small amounts of money online to fund business projects. Given underrepresentation of marginalized groups in the film industry and filmmakers' difficulty funding their projects, I show the use of crowdfunding to answer (1) whether it offers a more gender-equal opportunity than direct funding by major studios and (2) whether the films produced through crowdfunding are more female-centered when compared to non-crowdfunded films. Using a sample of 124 crowdfunded and traditionally funded feature films, released between 2012 and 2014; I found that crowdfunded films were more likely to employ female filmmakers and protagonist(s) than traditionally funded films. Additionally crowdfunded films had more filmmakers who are racial minorities, and filmmakers and protagonist(s) who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual. These results suggest that while women are far from achieving equity in the film industry as filmmakers or protagonists, crowdfunding may provide an alternative avenue for attaining financing for films, outside of the structure of Hollywood studios. / Master of Science

The Swedish law tells us that employers and co-workers are responsible to encourage gender equality work in order to make equal opportunities for both women and men in the Swedish work force. Different organizations have different conditions to change and the gender equality work is an example of a work of change. Previous research shows that gender equality work come across opposition in several ways. The aim of this study is to explain how departmental managers in care units work with gender equality and furthermore how the organization gives them conditions to do so. The question I aim to answer is: How is the departmental managers gender equality work influenced by the organizations particular conditions? To fulfil the aim of the study and answer the question I used a qualitative approach. Four departmental managers in care units were interviewed by means of semi- structured interviews. The material was processed with a thematic approach. I searched for common themes in the interviews and interpreted it with the assistance of select theory. The theories were Göran Ahrnes and Apostolis Papakostas organization theory about mechanisms of rigidity and Yvonne Hirdmans concept gender system. The results of the study show that written gender equality documents make mechanisms of rigidity and contribute to an inability to change. The organizations give the departmental managers capacity to diminish the need of gender equality work by means of shifting in time, category and responsibility. The analysis gives an explanation of the conditions with the assistance of the gender systems involvement in the organizations structure and culture. The conclusion means that the gender system makes the gender-differentiated organization inartificial, and therefore affects the conditions of the departmental managers gender equality work.

No description available.

No / FP7

No

No / FP7

No / FP7

No / FP7

No / FP7

No / GENOVATE presents a mid-term workshop on gender and science - advancements and resistance in fighting structural inequality. / FP7