Producing Television and Reproducing Gender

Abstract

In a case study of Irish television, gendered production processes are created through the channeling of women and men into different types of roles where they receive differential rewards and opportunities from their work. Gender also impacts in complex ways on the routines of production, where it shapes the perspective applied to media content and expectations regarding the behavior of staff. Gendered production routines and role allocations become embedded over time and eventually form a gendered culture of television production that prohibits Irish women’s equal participation. Despite the reproduction of gendered work roles, routines, and cultures, women offer evidence of sustainable and valued careers in production. However, women’s adaptations to the constraints of gendered work processes and practices are founded on a neoliberal and postfeminist sensibility that denies the gendered nature of their work and refers responsibility for survival in the industry onto the individual worker, who in turn denies the relevance of gender to their careers.