Women In The Vfx And Animation Industry

By Author: Sara Wilson
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The visual effects industry is one of those many fields where women’s participation is comparatively lower than men’s. The age-old stigmas or the lack of necessary awareness regarding the animation and VFX industry might be the reason the number of women in VFX is comparatively low. It is no hyperbole to say, in a patriarchal culture, women are always expected to address structural issues that they did not start or perpetuate. Even people who meant no harm lack self-awareness or are unaware of how they contribute to sexism or other serious injustices. If picking meritorious candidates just based on talent, and not gender is unsuccessful, then elevating women must be a deliberate decision.

Visual effects have evolved over the past 25 years from being a sometimes niche element of a sci-fi or adventure picture to becoming an essential component of almost every film or television programme. Yet, this boom hasn't traditionally given women and women of colour more opportunities. Today more women are inclined to enter VFX academies to start a career in VFX. But the change is yet to come.

According to a report by ...
... the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, only 2.9% of all VFX supervisors are women. This is despite the urgent need for qualified VFX artists, producers, and supervisors to meet the rising demand. The figures also didn't indicate significant improvement when they examined the progression in the proportion of women receiving credit for VFX work.

IBC reports that women are ‘invisible’ in this industry. According to them, women only garnered 22.6% of all VFX credits for the top 400 grossing movies from 2016 to 2022. And the number of women who are interested in VFX and take VFX Coursesto pursue their passion and artistic talent is way higher than that.

The amount of women entering numerous technical disciplines has been negatively influenced by systemic challenges at work, according to Women in VFX "There is a long history of visual effects where it was dominated by these enormous facilities that did the VFX job. It's a very physically taxing job that relies heavily on technology. So, I believe that men were more likely to perform technical and physical tasks. Women were hired for support roles like budgeting and scheduling. As STEM is the focus, [promoting women in VFX] must be done sooner rather than later. We ought to inform them right away that a career in visual effects is possible before instructing them in art and technology.

According to the analysis, there are 3.6 men for every woman employed in VFX. In the four years covered by the research, women occupied 16.2% of all senior posts. Women made up only 2.9% of VFX supervisors, but 46.7% of VFX producers, so this varied with the position.

Fewer than 25% (23%) of VFX editors were female, and less than 10% of supervisors in other leadership positions (such as animation supervisors, lighting supervisors, compositing supervisors, and CG/3D supervisors) were female.

The analysis included a look at the jobs in the pipeline for supervisory posts. According to the authors, women hold between 13.9% and 21.5% of pipeline occupations, but their representation in leadership roles is far lower—less than 10%. Women make up roughly two-thirds of production coordinators, even in producing jobs, while they make up less than half of producers. Women's pipelines in the VFX ecosystem "have obvious leaks and holes," according to Smith.

Even in companies where women’s participation is deliberately made sure only women 26.9% made up to the executive positions.
Speculated reasons
Only hypothetical conclusions could be drawn from an outer analysis.

These include issues related to:

1. Workforce composition
2. Dominance and preference for men in the industry
3. Leadership misconceptions that link supervisory roles as masculine traits.
4. Workplace culture
5. Difficulty in work/family balance as the traditional responsibility of looking after the family lies on the shoulders of women.

It's no secret anymore that the VFX industry is dominated by men. You only need to look at this year's Visual Effects Society Awards to see how many teams consisted entirely of men and how few had more than one woman on them. Few women initially enter the VFX field than in most STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) fields, and those that do tend to quit.

The VFX business is actively working to recruit more women and people of colour because there is a growing understanding that diverse workplaces are better for everyone. Developing a better knowledge of how we got here is a part of that effort.