While accepting her award for Best Supporting Actress at Sunday night’s Golden Globe Awards, Regina King made a promise to employ a crew of at least 50 percent women in her film productions. She also challenged others in Hollywood to match her efforts, and it was a familiar refrain: The need for better representation in film, for better stories about women created by women, has been raised by women in Hollywood for decades. That dialogue is no longer just a tête-à-tête among frustrated colleagues; there’s been some progress. Unsurprisingly, though, the number of women in hiring positions remains dismal. No wonder Patricia Arquette was psyched to shout out Escape at Dannemora cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné at the Globes—“A woman DP!” Arquette yelled during her acceptance speech.
“Celluloid Ceiling,” a new report from San Diego State University—part of their annual Study of Women in Television and Film—found that in 2018, among the top grossing films, women accounted for only 20 percent of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers. Only 1 percent of those films employed 10 or more women in those roles, while 74 percent employed 10 or more men. Since 1998, the study has analyzed the employment of women in the top 250 domestic grossing films each year. In those 21 years, there’s been minimal improvement.
Along with the report, the executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, noted, “The study provides no evidence that the mainstream film industry has experienced the profound positive shift predicted by so many industry observers over the last year. This radical underrepresentation is unlikely to be remedied by the voluntary efforts of a few individuals or a single studio.” To get insight on the numbers and why Hollywood is so stagnant, Jezebel spoke with Lauzen via email. Our interview has been slightly edited for clarity.
JEZEBEL: What would you say has been the most illuminating statistic in the history of the “Celluloid Ceiling” reports?
DR. MARTHA M. LAUZEN: The study has shown how difficult it can be to change an industry that lacks a will to change. In 2018, women comprised 20 percent of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 domestic grossing films. This is just 1 percentage point above the 19 percent achieved in 2001. In 2018, women accounted for 8 percent of directors. This is 1 percentage point below the 9 percent achieved in 1998. “Celluloid Ceiling” has been very helpful in disassembling a number of myths about women in Hollywood. One myth is that the employment situation for women working in film has improved greatly, based on the anecdotal stories of a few women. The numbers have shown that has not been the case for most women working in film.
Another more global myth that circulated for years was that women didn’t support one another. The studies have shown this simply is not true. Films with at least one female director employ substantially higher percentages of women working as writers, editors, cinematographers, and composers than films with exclusively male directors. For example, on films with at least one female director, women comprised 47 percent of editors. On films with exclusively male directors, women accounted for 19 percent of editors. On films with at least one female director, women comprised 71 percent of writers. On films with exclusively male directors, women accounted for 13 percent of writers. If more women worked as directors, more women would work in other behind-the-scenes roles.
There have been more than a few studies recently about a lack of women in Hollywood despite headlines about their successes—the Wonder Woman effect. You call it a “radical underrepresentation.” Are studies like this useful?
Quantitative studies are incredibly effective and powerful in grounding the public and industry dialogue in the objective reality.
Why haven’t we seen any improvement?