Gender-parity pledge amid ‘toxic masculinity’ claims

Article here. Excerpt:

'THE Venice film festival has signed up to an equality charter for women, just days after it was accused of "toxic masculinity".

The organisers had been slammed for only having one female film director among 21 competing for the Golden Lion top prize for the second year running.

But festival director Alberto Barbera, who declared last month that he would "rather quit" than give in to pressure for a quota for women, signed up Friday to a gender equality protocol already backed by the Cannes, Toronto and Locarno festivals.

While the 50/50 by 2020 goals drawn up by the leaders of a campaign launched by women stars at Cannes stops short of quotas, it does call for transparency in selection and an even gender ratio in top management.'