Despite the film industry’s attempts to increase diversity, it is still heavily dominated by white males.

 

The University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which analyzed the film industry since 2007, found that out of the 1,200 highest-grossing films in the past ten years, 96% where directed by men, 80% were edited by men, and 72% were produced by men[1], meaning only 4% where directed by females.

 

Now, why is this?

 

Katherine Pieper the co- author of The University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative puts it best when stating “women aren’t given as many chances to be hired again by studios, and that makes it more difficult for women to see this as a career path they can pursue in order to provide for themselves and feed their families.” The percentage of male directors who are allowed to make a second movie is nearly half whereas the percentage for female directors is only 17%. In addition, the careers span for males spans 3 decades longer than females, for example just 8 women in their 50s directed a film versus 281 men. But not only in directing are there shockingly low numbers of diversity between genders, only 3% of cinematographers are female, 2% of composers, and out of 281 of the gaffers in the 1,200 highest-grossing films, not a single one was female. 

 

This is in contrast to more than half percent of people who go to see the movies are females, so why aren’t films being made by females, for females[2]?