Birds of a feather: informal recruitment practices and gendered outcomes for screenwriting work in the UK film industry

• Published in: The Sociological review (Keele) Vol. 63; no. S1; pp. 84 - 96
• Main Author: Wreyford, Natalie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2015; SAGE Publications; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Ambiguity; Bourdieu, Pierre; Bourdieu, Pierre (1930-2002); Candidates; Case studies; Creative industries; Creative work; Creativity; Employment; Film industry; Gender; Gender differentiation; Gender inequality; Habitus; Hiring; Inequality; informality; Job openings; Motion picture industry; Motion pictures; Mouth; Networking; Occupational segregation; Recruitment; Reliance; risk; Risk theory; Sex; Sexual Inequality; Social Networks; Uncertainty; United Kingdom; Working Women; informality; networking; risk; recruitment; film industry

The film industry offers an exemplary case study for examining the recruitment processes to which the ‘socialized worker’ (Gill and Pratt, 2008) is subject. Even among the creative industries, film is exceptional in its reliance on networking and word of mouth as its primary – and in many cases only...