THREE SHORTS ON RTE.IE

Women in predominantly male professions? What's that about?

When my wonderful friend Beta, a photographer, took my portrait doing what I love most and put it in a self-published book full of portraits of women working jobs mostly associated with men - I knew she tapped into a something big. The issue of gender equality has been swirling around us for a while now. Citizens, organisations and companies began pointing out the vast margins in pay differences and underrepresentation of women workers in many industries and professions. Beta too felt she was surrounded by women who had to work hard to get where they are against the gender placement stereotypes. So her idea was to tackle the issue creatively. She photographed many women all over Ireland who followed their dreams and dared to do something out of the ordinary. Her book had a launch on International Women's Day 2017 in Dublin Castle, and since then it has been noticed by the Little Museum of Dublin who decided to include Beta's photos in their exhibition "What's she doing here?" Women at Work 1918-2018 is a new exhibition which aims to highlight trailblazing women in Ireland.

And as part of this exhibition Beta was also commissioned to direct three short films about some of the women. While it was her first directorial project, Beta approached it as a skilled and thoroughly prepared journalist who understands storytelling and the human spirit. It was my honour to have served her as the cinematographer, and in the case of one of the shorts as an editor as well.

RTE.ie is now publishing these short films in the lifestyle section of their website.

See them here:

ROSEMARY SMITH

NIKI COLLIER

LISA LEVINS BURGESS