A Workshop at the University of Rostock, Institute for Media Research conducted by Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Prommer & Yvonne de Andrés on behalf of the Minister of Culture and the Media, Berlin December 2020.

Working within the framework of the German EU Council Presidency, an international workshop on “how to bridge the gender data gap in the cultural and creative sector” (CCS) was held in December 2020. This document summarizes the workshop and captures the workshop´s recommendations for action. A group of 42 international gender equality experts - drawn from the culture and creative industries and across the sectors as in arts, performing arts, music and literature - gathered to highlight the problems and discuss potential solutions.

A concerning baseline was the lack of systematic data and lack of comparative research on gender inequality per sector across Europe, which has been identified by previous workshops, research and working papers (e.g. Vecco et al. 2019, Murphy et al. 2019). A call for interdisciplinary research on gender equality, the sharing of best practices and examples between EU Member States has been formulated. Summarizing available research about women in the cultural and creative sectors, the scope of the workshop focused on how to fill the gaps in gender data. The aims were:

1. Identify the type of data, that is necessary to improve gender equality parity in the CCS (Culture and Creative Sector).
2. Provide insight on how to collect necessary statistical data on the gender gap in the creative sector within Europe. Identify the potential barriers to collection of data. 
3. Are there ”best practice” examples that we can identify?
4. What recommendations and actions can be proposed?

To resolve the issue of insufficient data the focus lies on how to generate and collect comparable EU-wide data regarding:

• Access to the creative sector and the arts labour market.
• Access to decision-making and leadership positions.
• Access to resources (funding)
• the gender pay gap.

The cultural and creative sectors (CCS) under consideration are music, performing arts (including theatre, dance, opera), visual arts, literature, and related culture managing professions such as museum directors, curators, and heads of cultural institutions. The geographic scope covers the EU member states with an emphasis on France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Spain and the UK.

The film industry was identified as a “best practice” example, since there exists some comparable EU-wide data. Even if the data does not cover all functions and all aspects, some are covered by the EWA study from 2017, or research by the European Audiovisual Observatory. A brief summary will give insight into the EU wide available data. The following paper is structured by the guiding questions:

• What data do we need to assess gender parity in the cultural sector?
• Why do we not have this data? Where are the barriers and problems in data collection?
• What would be the criteria for data collection?
• What solutions can we propose to close the data gap?

In the workshop, we explored the above questions with experts from the cultural and creative industries. Specialist subgroups discussed the performing arts, literature, music, and fine arts.

Keynotes and Input by:

Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Prommer, Director of the Institut für Media Research, University of Rostock, Germany
Prof. Dr. Marilena Vecco, Professor for Entrepreneurship Burgundy Business School, Dijon, France
Flavia Barca, President of Acume, Member of the Italian Film and Audiovisual Council at Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism in Italy (Mibact)
Nina George, Autor, President European Writers Council, Germany – France
Nicola Bramkamp, Artistic Director BURNING ISSUES - Performing Arts & Equality, Germany
Dr. Victoria Durrer, Lecturer/ Assistant Professor (Ad Astra Fellow) School of Art History and Cultural Policy, University College Dublin, Ireland
Katha Alexi, expert for the music sector, Institute for Media Research, University of Rostock, Germany
Venjune Zemaityte, Senior Research Fellow, Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School (BFM), Tallinn University
Carlos Collado Seidel, German Spanish historian, Universität Marburg, PEN-Zentrum Germany, Secretary General from 2017 to 2019
Prof. Dr. Doris Eickhof, Professor of Cultural Economy & Policy. University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

Further Informations you will find here.