The “Women Directors” Crisis In-a-Nutshell

By Maria Giese

WHY IT MATTERS:

Hollywood, for all its outspoken liberalism, is an industry that has consistently kept women shut out. Today, in 2015, fewer women directors are working in American media than two decades ago. On a global basis, this means that nearly 100% of U.S. media content—America’s most influential export—reflects a mostly male point of view. Thus, the astounding potential our nation has to share our passion for equality and free speech is lost to people everywhere around the world.

OSCARS:

The media produced in Hollywood and glorified at the Oscars is a powerful tool capable of affecting the way people in every part of the world act and treat one another. Why do we allow this fortress of secrecy, this bastion of sexism and racism, to function as the grand architect of our nation’s projected ethos when it is illegal and we don’t agree with it?

Feature films contribute greatly to the collective cultural voice of our civilization, but as demonstrated by the nominees for the 2015 Oscars, the only voices the world gets to hear from Hollywood are those of men. How can we say we have free speech when women’s voices are silenced and censored through exclusion from U.S. media?

The Academy insists its only criterion is excellence, but with a membership that is 94% Caucasian and 77% male, what chance is their for other versions of “excellence” to be appreciated? This concept of excellence sounds a little like fascist art. If you have only one distinct group financing, producing, promoting and judging cinematic works, then there is very little chance of discovering new visions, new perspectives we’ve never seen before. America deserves greater democracy in its cinematic arts.

THE DGA:

The DGA must no longer stand as the primary entity enforcing lawful employment opportunity for its women members. This union, run by its vast-majority male director membership, is in an intrinsic conflict-of-interest in advancing women. More jobs for women mean fewer jobs for men, so it’s no surprise that the Guild sharply opposes our every effort to receive our lawful equal employment opportunity rights.

BARRIERS TO CHANGE:

One of the most awful aspects of the struggle for female director employment is how industry leadership pits women against women. They deputize and reward a few women who then actively fight to silence and shut-out those of us who seek legal and political solutions. These women serve themselves individually by helping perpetuate the exclusion of women as a group.

In 1978, the EEOC stopped trying to enforce Title VII in our industry because it was intimidated by Hollywood’s power lawyers and the bottomless coffers at their disposal to fight litigation. Women are afraid to speak out because of fear of blacklisting. Hollywood spends hundreds of millions every year lobbying for political support and in return, government organizations spend vast sums to be represented in films and TV shows. This is an industry that functions on personal relationships and reciprocity, one must not step a foot out of line.

HISTORIC SOLUTION:

To women directors in Hollywood “The Original Six,” are giants; they are the heroes who launched the landmark 1980’s DGA-led class action lawsuit that sent women directors’ employment numbers soaring from .05% in 1985 to 16% in 1995—in just 10 years. The work they did altered the landscape for women directors and their teams—forever. There is not a single woman director working in Hollywood today who does not have the Original Six to thank for their jobs.

SOLUTIONS:

The DGA-studio Collective Bargaining Agreements need to include a double-mandate system to address the specific needs of women of all ethnicities, separate from male ethnic minorities. Today Guild signatories can fulfill their diversity obligations by hiring male ethnic minority members, and hiring no women at all. Women comprise 51% of our population, we are not a minority; our challenges are unique and require separate treatment.

The issues of male minorities are critical. Our industry needs more diverse male voices, too, but women need their own distinct category in order to advance. In a double mandate system, women of color will gain a numerical edge they sorely deserves. Female minorities will qualify in two categories rather than one: “Women of All Ethnicities,” AND “Ethnic Minorities of Both Genders.”

We need to start broad, industry-wide legal action for women directors targeting Hollywood studios, mini-majors, agencies, guilds— all of the institutions in our industry that violate America’s hard-won Civil Rights law, Title VII.

Impartial, objective organizations like the U.S. Department of Justice EEOC is supposed to do the work of ensuring a fair playing field for women, but they relinquished that responsibility decades ago. They need to get back to business.

Originally Posted on April 16, 2015