Let’s Talk Numbers
I wanted to explore more into the study by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Dr. Katherine Pieper, and Mark Choueiti. The study was conducted at the University of Southern California in the Annenberg School Of Communication and Journalism. They took 1,000 feature films that were released through the years of 2007–2016. Among these top 1,000 features, they researched exactly how many women and men worked on what. I found some interesting numbers and facts to point out.
The first comparison was the number of directors and how many were women. Over the 1,000 films, there were 1,114 directors. Only about 44 were women directors, which is only 4%. The ratio to women to men is almost more clarifying the inequality (24 men to 1 woman). The other interesting aspect of the number of female directors is that amount per year. I would expect the numbers of woman directors to rise from 2007–2016 but it slowly decreased until about 2015, with 7.5 directors then dropped again in 2016 to 4.2. There was no slow increase, therefore it makes me imagine that no one has been stepping up in favor of these women.
From these numbers of women, I can see the obvious discrimination, but there is even further discrimination within that. The amount of African American and Asian women working in the director’s chair is even smaller. Only 3 directors out of the approximate 44 were African American and only 3 Asian Americans. Therefore only 6 out of the 44 were not white women. How sad is it to see that non even the women are supporting every woman? And I would like to just blame it all on the boss who hires but the blame is on everyone. It is not the studios, the production offices, the businessman behind the deal, it’s an industry problem.
There was a chart that particularly worried me. It was the age restrictions for female directors. In comparison to the males, no women are working in their 20s, 70s, and 80s. And that might seem reasonable, considering in your 20s you are just starting, and no big-time producers are going to give their feature film to a new director. And by the time you’re in your 70s and 80s maybe it is time to retire and step aside for those younger creative minds. But when you see the men’s numbers, that is when it’s not fair and those excuses go out the window. Men are working in all ages for the 20s to 80s. There is an obvious decline between the ages of 20, 60, 70, and 80. Most of the men are working in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. But why aren’t women working? 8 men in their 20s directed a feature film in the years of 2007–2016 and not one woman. This makes me consider my path, and by this chart, it is saying that I won’t get a directing feature job till I am 30 if I’m lucky, but the dominance is at the age of 40. But the other men in my classroom have a better shot when they are 20. Therefore it scares me, and the future of women in film.
These numbers may be hard to read for those out there that understand the struggles of being a woman. I know reading those numbers affected my day, but it didn’t ruin it. Because how I see it as those numbers can only go one way, and that is up. There is no farther down we can go when we are already at the bottom. Therefore it creates a motivation in me to personally change those numbers and make sure I am one of those numbers one day because even if it is low at least I know I was counted and pushing towards a new norm in Hollywood.
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