What’s Missing in the Film Industry? Women.
The representation of women in the film industry is dismally low. In 2014, women comprised 17% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 (domestic) grossing films. And if you’re guessing that number is creeping upwards, it’s not. That’s the same percentage of women who worked in these roles in 1998.
These numbers come from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, which has tracked these numbers for the past 17 years in their annual Celluloid Ceiling report. As a response to these numbers, the ACLU of Southern California and the national ACLU Women’s Rights Project have requested an investigation into what they call a “systematic failure” to hire women directors.
