I wanted to write about "Grace and Frankie" this week. The new series on Netflix stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda as two 70-something wives whose husbands have fallen in love and are divorcing the women so they can marry each other. The series is about the women—it was specifically created for Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. So why are their supporting actors, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, making the
same salary as the stars?
Might have something to do with the rampant sexism of Hollywood. Hollywood, home of the casting couch and the movie starlet. I doubt that anyone would be surprised to know that it is pretty much a boys club, with a no admittance policy that has kept women out of the seats of power for far too many years.
And this not only occurs in the executive offices of the major studios, but extends to employment behind the cameras. The overwhelming majority of Hollywood's directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and directors of photography are male.
Think Progress quotes Ariela Migdal, senior staff attorney at the ACLU, who makes clear the flagrant nature of the sexual discrimination that women face in Hollywood:
“Hiring producers, showrunnners, all these people, go around talking openly about how they won’t hire women,” Migdal said. “That is a product of a culture where they don’t think they’re going to have to be accountable to anybody.”
The ACLU wants to change that. Please follow me below the fold for what they have done and why they have done it.
Meryl Streep responds to a question from moderator Jon Stewart during a panel discussion with directors Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Saving Face) and Ava DuVernay (Selma)
From research studies done by
The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University:
In 2013-14, women comprised 27% of creators, executive producers, producers, writers, directors, editors, and directors of photography working on prime-time programs airing on the broadcast networks. ... On screen, women accounted for 42% of all speaking characters.
...
In 2014, females comprised 12% of protagonists, 29% of major characters, and 30% of all speaking characters in the top 100 grossing films. Gender stereotypes remained abundant in last year's films...11% of female characters were Black, 4% were Latina, and 4% were Asian.
...
Women comprised 17% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 (domestic) grossing films of 2014. This represents an increase of 1 percentage point from 2013 but is the same percentage of women working in these roles in 1998.
In 2014, women accounted for 7% of directors, up 1 percentage point from 2013 but down 2 percentage points from 9% in 1998. In other roles, women comprised 11% of writers, 23% of producers, 19% of executive producers, 18% of editors, and 5% of cinematographers.
Last September, the
Directors Guild of America released the results from a study of scripted series on network and cable television. The study found that only 14 percent of the more that 3,500 episodes from over 220 different series were directed by women. Worse, there were 23 shows that hired no women or minority directors at all.
When they compared the statistics with the 2012-2013 year, they found that the percentage of Caucasian males directing episodes had slipped from 72 to 69 percent. That decrease was picked up by minority males, whose share of the directing gigs had increased by 3 percent, from 14 to 17 percent. The share for Caucasian females and minority females had remained at 12 and 2 percent.
There is now a Tumblr blog dedicated to Shit People Say to Women Directors. Here are some samples:
“I dunno if people will take you seriously in the industry, your boobs are too big and distracting. Just go in front of the camera, I’m sure you’d get work, you’re really pretty.”
—52-year-old male film Tutor when I was 18.
(I am currently a 22-year-old female Writer/Director).
"Women just freak out all the time. They’re crazy. Their hormones are all over the place and they can’t be calm and rational. They make the worst Producers."
—VFX Supervisor explaining to me (Production Coordinator) why he hates working with female Producers
CityNews reporter Shauna Hunt confronts men who bombarded her with vulgarity such as shouting “F*CK HER IN THE PUSSY” while she tries to conduct an interview at Sunday’s TFC game.
Update: Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment released a statement today, announcing the fans would be banned from all of their facilities. Also, Hydro One has fired one employee from the video for violating their code of conduct.
"All the male characters are just side characters and plot devices. This film will never find an audience if it alienates half the population with its lopsided presentation of men."
— blog review of my feature film
Your main job is basically to be my work wife. You need to anticipate my needs. Especially when my wife’s on her period.
— Said to me during a job interview. I declined the offer.
They actually say this stuff, today.To women. Out loud.
Little wonder that the ACLU has written a letter to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs as well as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, requesting an investigation into what the ACLU calls systemic "overt sex stereotyping and implicit bias."
According to the New York Times:
“Women directors aren’t working on an even playing field and aren’t getting a fair opportunity to succeed,” said Melissa Goodman, director of the L.G.B.T., Gender and Reproductive Justice Project at the A.C.L.U. of Southern California. “Gender discrimination is illegal. And, really, Hollywood doesn’t get this free pass when it comes to civil rights and gender discrimination.”
What the A.C.L.U. is requesting has precedent. In the 1960s, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held hearings about Hollywood and asked for the intervention of the Justice Department, which in turn found employment discrimination. A settlement was reached with the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers and several unions: Remedial measures included employment referrals for minorities, although not women specifically, and the A.C.L.U. said enforcement measures sputtered and ultimately failed.
While the ACLU request focuses on the hiring practices for directors, the problem of sexual discrimination extends far beyond that. The salary differential is particularly a problem that cannot be brushed off with some nonsense about different work resulting in different compensation. Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are onscreen far more than are the men who play their ex-husbands. So why are the women not making more money?
Two years ago, the New York Film Academy created this infographic on gender inequality in film. Two years later things have only gotten worse.