The actor Carey Mulligan has spoken out about the limited progress for working mothers in the film industry since the widespread reckoning of the #MeToo movement and has called for on-set childcare to help parents.
She praised the introduction of codes of conducts for on-set behaviour in response to the Harvey Weinstein scandal, but argued the lack of childcare was preventing talented people from doing their jobs.
“I don’t think being a working mother in our industry has been made that much easier. It’s incredibly difficult. Childcare is so expensive,” she told the Radio Times. “I’ve never, ever been on a set where they have childcare, but I’ve been on lots of sets where lots of people have very young children … I had my daughter on the set of [the films] Mudbound and Wildlife and loads of the crew had kids, but they had to arrange childcare. It’s always incredibly complicated.”
The 33-year-old said childcare facilities on set “would make it possible for a lot of talented people to come and do their job”.
Research released this week revealed nearly half of all nurseries, pre-schools and childminders in England are receiving less government funding than five years ago. The reduction has hit disadvantaged children the hardest because childcare providers in deprived areas rely heavily on government funding and are struggling to stay afloat, according to the report.
A separate report by the Trades Union Congress found that despite government support childcare fees for working parents have risen three times faster than wages in the past decade. The report, released last month, showed that weekly childcare costs have increased by 52% since 2008 for families with a full-time and a part-time working parent.
Mulligan said the industry wasn’t accepting enough of pregnant actors. She was five weeks pregnant with her son when she got the role of DI Kip Glaspie in this year’s BBC2 drama Collateral. She said the only person she told about the pregnancy was the director, and she was fortunate to have the character rewritten so she could play the role pregnant.
A spokesperson for the Women’s Equality party said: “It is fantastic to see more pregnant women on screen and in leading roles. It is a common experience for lots of women and has the potential to bring new depth to characters on screen.
“Too many women are forced to drop out of the workplace during and after pregnancy because of maternity discrimination and the impossible costs of childcare. The result is that women fall behind in their careers and are channeled into part-time and lower paid work, which then makes it more likely that they pick up the majority of caring responsibilities.”
The spokesperson said this cycle could be broken by offering shared parental leave that properly compensated both parents, and free childcare from the end of that leave until children start school.
“Universal free childcare would pay for itself through the increased taxes and reduced out-of-work benefits that flow from the 1.7 million jobs it would generate. So there really is no reason to keep forcing parents to make impossible choices.”
