This article discusses the lack of gender diversity in the film industry. It notes that women make up only 17% of directors, writers, producers and other key roles in top Hollywood films. This percentage has not improved since 1998. The article profiles two female Ohio University students studying film and quotes professors and studies that attribute this disparity to the male-dominated power structures in Hollywood that control financing and opportunities. While independent films have more balanced gender representation, the industry overall continues to face challenges promoting diversity behind the camera.

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Natalie Hulla remembers looking
around a screenwriting class during
her junior year at Ohio University and
realizing she was the only woman in the
room.
“I thought, ‘This is odd,’” said Hulla,
now a second-year graduate student in
the Master of Fine Arts film production
program. “I remember, I was usually one
of the maybe two or three girls in my
undergraduate film classes — that was
always kind of very surprising for me. I
didn’t really understand why. … I guess
I’m so used to that gender disparity.”
She had nine male classmates and a
male professor.
It’s a situation plaguing most of
American cinema. Women constituted
17 percent of all directors, writers, pro-
ducers, executive producers, editors
and cinematographers working on the
top 250 domestic grossing films, accord-
ing to the 2014 Celluloid Ceiling report,
produced by the Center for the Study of
Women in Television and Film at San Di-
ego State University.
It’s the same number the study
found of women working in the indus-
try in 1998.
“There’s nothing about being female
that indicates some lesser interest in
this particular art form,” said Annie
Howell, an associate professor of film.
“Just as many people want to partici-
pate — it’s just the gates are particu-
larly locked. The more (filmmaking) in-
volves big business, the harder it is for
women to excel.”
Howell, who is the only female pro-
fessor in the Division of Film this year,
said the problem stems from the power
structure in Hollywood, which typically
produces the films the study analyzes.
“The history of that particular net-
work is based in a profile that is entirely
male and once that power structure
is entrenched, even if there are some
women there, the choices being made
at the top reflect the interest and the
life experience of those people,” Howell
said. “This impacts who gets through
the door, who gets hired and who gets
financed.”
Susanne Dietzel, director of OU’s
Women’s Center, said the lack of women
in filmmaking roles influences the sto-
ries shown on screen.
“We’re not getting a full representa-
tion of who we are as a society because
if only a few number of people are our
storytellers, then we’re missing other
stories,” she said. “We can’t assume the
80 percent of men who are determining
what our stories are or what films get
produced, that they would know what
women go through and what we would
like to see on the screen.”
None of the eight films nominated for
Best Picture in this year’s Oscars has
a female protagonist. Many were sur-
prised at Ava DuVernay’s “snub” for Best
Director for Selma, not only because she
would have been the first black female
director to have ever been nominated,
but also because she had been nomi-
nated at the 2015 Golden Globe Awards.
Hulla, one of the three women in
the second-year MFA film class, cited
a comment made by Cathy Schulman,
president of Women in Film, in a blog.
The organization focuses on empower-
ing women in the entertainment and
media industries.
“(Schulman) said it’s startling to me
and confusing that a film is nominated
for Best Picture but the director is not
because I’ve never seen a film direct it-
self,” Hulla said. “She directly pointed
to the fact that the director of Selma
was not nominated and she is a woman.”
Oscar voters are 94 percent white
and 76 percent male, according to The
Atlantic.
When women do make it to top po-
sitions in Hollywood, they are typically
paid less than their male counterparts,
according to information that was
leaked as part of the Sony Pictures En-
tertainment hack in late 2014.
The hack exposed alleged salaries
of more than 6,000 Sony employees, in-
cluding its 17 top paid executives, who
all annually earn more than $1 million.
Those top executives were 88 per-
cent white and 94 percent male.
Amy Pascal, former co-chair of Sony
Pictures and chair of Sony’s Motion Pic-
ture Group, was the only woman among
the top 17 executives. She earned $3 mil-
lion, the same as CEO Michael Lynton.
The document also shows that Han-
nah Minghella, co-president of produc-
tion at Sony’s Columbia Pictures divi-
sion, makes $800,000 less per year than
her male counterpart, Michael De Luca,
the other co-president of production.
De Luca is on track to earn $2.4 million
in 2014 while Minghella is set to earn
$1.6 million.
Dietzel suggested that Hollywood
should institute some form of affirma-
tive action to create more opportunities
for minorities.
In some ways, this is happening. For
instance, Gamechanger Films exclu-
sively finances films directed by women.
The Open Meadows Foundation offers
grants up to $2,000 for projects that pro-
mote gender, racial and economic jus-
tice and are led by and benefit women.
The Celluloid Ceiling report stated
women were just 7 percent of directors,
11 percent of writers, 23 percent of pro-
ducers, 18 percent of editors and 5 per-
cent of cinematographers in the top 250
domestic grossing films of 2014.
Howell said the numbers are more
balanced in independent cinema be-
cause filmmakers often produce their
own work, but added that the numbers
are “bleak” all around.
Producing involves a lot of organiz-
ing and multi-tasking, Hulla said, so in a
society where women are socialized to
be better at those tasks, it’s understand-
able that women excel more in producer
positions.
The lack of female cinematographers
can be attributed to the fact that women
have to “prove with education, certifica-
tion and experience” they’re worthy of
the more technology-based positions,
Hulla said, whereas men enjoy the “priv-
ilege where employers are automatical-
ly confident” in them.
Nikki Rodriguez, a junior study-
ing integrated media, was a part of the
Semester-in-L.A. program in the fall.
There, she said she noticed gender dis-
parity in the way people treated a fe-
male production supervisor, whom Ro-
driguez said she greatly respected.
“She was 4 feet tall. … She com-
manded the room and everybody was
scared of her, but everybody respected
her,” Rodriguez said. “But she would
walk away and people would call her a
bitch. I wonder if she was a guy, if they
would say the same thing. There were
plenty of guys on crew screaming into
their walkie-talkies about not having
their coffee. I would call him a bitch too,
but who knows?”
Rodriguez said she never was able
to work with or saw any female direc-
tors or cinematographers during her
semester in Los Angeles. She said the
lack of female representation comes
from the stigma about women in leader-
ship roles, in which they are perceived
as bossy whereas men are considered
aggressive.
During her first year in the MFA pro-
gram, Hulla, who wants to be a writer,
director and producer, said she was “hy-
per-aware” of being a woman in a posi-
tion of power because she is concerned
about being disrespected and seen as a
“bitch.”
“I think that’s true of a lot of indus-
tries, but that is something that was
very difficult for me to escape in my
own mind,” she said.
Rodriguez said interning with HSI
Productions made her want to direct
music videos and commercials for a
career. Despite the results of the study,
she said she maintains a positive out-
look on her future.
“It’s inspiring because it drives me
to work harder,” she said. “It makes
me look at myself and think, I’m doing
something not a lot of women are rep-
resented as doing, and when I do start
directing, I’m going to do it with a more
socially conscious eye. … If (I do expe-
rience discrimination), I will take it in
stride. If I’m the best person for that job,
I’m going to get that job.”
WOMEN IN THE MEDIA ARTS
AND STUDIES AND FILM
PROGRAMS AT OU
PRELIMINARY
FALL 2014
INTEGRATED MEDIA:
Women 49
Men 85
SCREENWRITING AND
PRODUCING:
Women 12
Men 38
VIDEO PRODUCTION:
Women 9
Men 32
GRADUATE FILM PROGRAM:
Women 22
Men 27
GAMES AND ANIMATION:
Women 6
Men 19
MUSIC PRODUCTION AND
RECORDING INDUSTRY:
Women 19
Men 54
AUDIO-MUSIC PRODUCTION:
Women 1
Men 23
Provided by Barbara Wharton,
associate provost in the Office of
Institutional Research
EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN ON
THE TOP 250 FILMS OF 2014
WOMEN WERE:
17% of all directors, writers,
producers, executive producers,
editors and cinematographers.
WOMEN WERE:
7% of directors
11% of writers
19% of executive producers
23% of producers
18% of editors
5% of cinematographers
According to San Diego State
University’s Celluloid Ceiling report
SEXISM and the
SILVER SCREEN
Report shows that fewer women are working
behind the camera in the filmmaking industry
SETH ARCHER | PHOTO EDITOR
Natalie Hulla, a second-year graduate student studying film, stands outside The
Athena Cinema. Hulla is interested in documentary filmmaking.
SETH ARCHER | PHOTO EDITOR
Nikki Rodriguez, a junior studying integrated media, stands in front of The Athena.
Rodriguez hopes to work in the commercial and music video industry.
MERYL GOTTLIEB
STAFF WRITER
@BUZZLIGHTMERYL
MG986611@OHIO.EDU
“There’s nothing about
being female that indicates
some lesser interest in this
particular art form.”
ANNIE HOWELL
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF FILM