1 min read
I have a penchant for flawed statistics. There's a cracker in today's Guardian:
Only 6% of film directors are women, so Jane Campion is calling for an army of tough new recruits.
Do I need to point out that this is drivel?
Clearly, there are very few female film directors, and the paper wants to emphasise that.
But it is impossible to measure the proportion. To derive a percentage, even at any snapshot moment, there has to be a fixed total of directors.
I have no idea where the Guardian got this stat from, but it is meaningless. To be a dentist, you have to pass exams and be registered. You can thus measure groups within the larger, fixed, register of dentists. There is no equivalent register of film directors. There is no fixed total. Anyone who has been to university knows of someone who has made a film, and wants to make more. Until they get their break, they're doing something else altogether. Are they directors?
Utter drivel.
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