Study of gender bias in the Spanish film industry

Abstract

Gender bias affects several (if not all) aspects of our lives, including the film industry. This work examines gender bias in the Spanish film industry before and after the promulgation of the 2007 gender equality law. Using the framework of complexity science, collaboration networks are built from the Sensacine database. Subsequently, their structural properties are measured and compared with those of networks obtained using a suitable null model. The empirical networks exhibit statistically significant gender homophily in both periods, with the latter decreasing significantly after 2007. Nonetheless, homophily still persists after 2007, indicating that gender-neutral collaborations had not been achieved by the end of the studied period. Therefore, we conclude that the 2007 law had a tangible but limited structural impact on gender equity in the film industry