The film and TV sector, not unlike most other sectors, fails to employ enough women in top jobs.

A recent report published by Directors UK reveals that the number of British female TV directors has actually fallen in recent years. The report collates information from more than 28,000 episodes created for television by some of the UK’s top production companies.

This report echoes an earlier report in 2012 published by the British Film Institute which found that after many years of under-representation, female screenwriters made a breakthrough over the last few years, with an unusually high representation in the top 20 UK independent films (37 per cent). However, this contrasts with continued under-representation of women among directors of UK independent films.

The two reports also highlight a level of gender stereotyping with the highest percentage of women directors in TV seen on factual programmes dealing with domestic issues, body image and food, while in film women are more likely than men to be associated with biopic, drama, music/dance and romance.

In Bradford, as part of our UNESCO City of Film programme, we continue to work towards more equality within the film and TV sector in a number of ways. The Bradford International Film Festival this year awarded a fellowship to British female director Sally Potter and showed a range of her films spanning the past 30 years.

Some might argue that the overall programme is still very male-dominated and of course more should be done to address this. Bradford City of Film has also hosted a number of events and talks on the subject of women in film and television and has worked closely with an established association by the same name (WFTV) to promote issues and opportunities around women in film.

We continue to celebrate the massive success of Otley-born director Clio Barnard whose credits include The Arbor and The Selfish Giant and hope that she will return to West Yorkshire for one of her future films.

Sally Wainright’s BBC drama, Happy Valley, has been criticised for the brutal portrayal of violence against women. Would such criticism have been news if the series had been written by a man?

For more about Bradford UNESCO City of Film, visit bradford-city-of-film.com