A critique of a critique of "women in media production" initiatives

The readings for this blog posted were focused on the lack of women in the production of media. I was most interested in Dawtrey’s discussion of Sweden and Norway’s mandates that more women be included in media production. One of the reasons Dawtrey discusses for why some people think these initiatives are flawed is that there are simply not enough women applying for these jobs, so the industry has to hire less talented writers to meet their quota. For this blog post, I would like to expand on and refute this idea.

            While it currently may be true that there are not enough women applying for the jobs to make the initiative work, I do not believe that this is a problem that will  persist in the future. I believe the problem of a lack of women is not simply that women are incapable of, or disinterested in, doing these jobs but that they have historically been told that there is not a place for them in the media industry. Thus, many capable, bright young women who were considering pursuing a career in media production may have forgone training in media production, opting instead to pursue training in a field that would more readily accept them.

          However, with these initiatives, young women may now be more likely to decide that they can indeed enter the world of media production. I believe this is much similar to the presence of women in science. Women have been historically discouraged from pursuing careers in science. However, with the advent of many “women in science” initiatives, women are less discouraged from studying science, and the number of women in the field has increased. I think that, like the “women in science initiatives,” these “women in media production” initiatives will show young women that there is a place for them in the world of media production and thereby increase the number of women who receive training and apply for jobs in the field. Thus, the argument that the mandates are leading to a decrease in the level of talent possessed by hired-writers will eventually be rendered irrelevant.