The 8th March 2020! International Women’s Day! And the perfect day to reflect on the role of women in the media & film industry.
It’s not exactly news that the film industry is lacking in diversity. In an awards season where there were no Best Director nominations given to any woman across the Oscars, Golden Globes & Baftas (the 7th year in a row) & in the wake of the successful prosecution of Harvey Weinstein, I decided to look into the history of women in film & look at where it all went wrong.
In the early days of silent film, crews were small and versatile with lead actors making costumes and the distinction between camera operator and director very much blurred. In these early days, a number of women were hugely influential and successful. The first female director, Alice Guy-Blaché started making film in 1896 and made what is believed to be the first fiction film ‘The Cabbage Fairy’. Although she paved the way for other women coming into the industry, her carer was sadly cut short when she divorced, and the social stigma of the time prevented her from continuing her work.
But Alice was not alone, the 1915 Motion Picture Supplement reported that “the fairer sex is represented as in no other calling”. Women founded and financed their own feminist production company the “American Women Film Company”. Mary Pickford founded her own production company and was eventually instrumental in founding and then running the United Artists Studio. Between 1912 and 1919 Universal boasted 11 female directors who made over 170 films.
However, this was not to last. The same Universal Studio, following the advent of sound and the big money it brought, failed to credit a single female director between 1927 and 1982. This change from the small & flexible production of silent movies to the big budget, hierarchical and rigid roles that came in with the new ‘talkies’ is largely credited with the reduction of women to only a few specific roles within film. With the ‘big roles’ reserved only for men.
The change was such that, one of the key women within the industry in 1927, Lois Weber, when asked how she would advise aspiring young women who wished to join the industry said “Dont try it – You’ll never get away with it”.
And sadly, this prediction has rung true over the intervening decades, with little to no improvement even in the last few years. In 1998 just 4% of cinematographers in the top 250 films were female, in 2019 it was 5%. Between 1994 and 2018 only 12% of golden globe nominees (in mixed gender categories) were female, and only 8% of these nominees won. For women from minority backgrounds, the numbers are even more disturbing.
“If there’s specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can’t change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies.”
– Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty)
But this is not the end of the story for women in film.
A number of hugely talented, creative and successful female cinematographers are beginning to gain the recognition their work is due. Rachel Morrison was the first woman, in the 90 years of their existence, to be nominated for the Best Cinematography Oscar. Nancy Schreiber, who joined the ASC before the had women’s bathrooms, has recently been honoured with the President’s Award.
Here in the UK in 1989, a group of women came together for the first WFTV (UK) meeting. A mix of executives, creatives and performers, they included Lynda La Plante, Norma Heyman, Jenne Casarotto, Dawn French, Joan Collins and Janet Street-Porter. These were all women who enjoyed career success but knew that the male-dominated industry needed to fundamentally change if women were to be truly equal. They resolved to take positive action and follow in the footsteps of organisations in Los Angeles and New York City established in the ’70s to support women working in the film and TV industries. They did this by creating a network of members and organising workshops, events, and mentoring to help them progress in their careers.
In 1990, the first Women in Film awards ceremony was held to recognise the achievements of some of the most successful women the industry could boast. Twenty-five years on, the WFTV Awards is the largest annual celebration of women working in film, TV and digital media in the UK – tickets to the prestigious event sell out in minutes. Today, WFTV (UK) continues to expand and build upon the vital work of that original group of women & make the creative-media industries’ future fairer for all. You can join or find more information here.
Also supporting filmmakers is Illuminatrix, a collective of British based female cinematographers who’s combined catalogues of work and plethora of awards show what is possible for women in the industry today & you can find more information about Illuminatrix here.
