Leading Women : Entertainment: Crystal Awards honor directors, writers, actresses. Recipients criticize male-dominated political structure and implore audience to put females in office.

There was more talk about national politics than studio politics Friday at Women in Film’s 16th annual Crystal Awards ceremony, which honors Hollywood women who have contributed significantly to the entertainment industry.

“Let us stand up and cheer for an exemplary citizen--albeit a fictional character--Murphy Brown,” said Jean Picker Firstenberg, director of the American Film Institute, referring to Vice President Dan Quayle’s criticism of the TV character for having a baby without being married. “I’m very sorry, Mr. Vice President, but we’re on Murphy’s side. You may call us the cultural elite but we are as patriotic, as loving and as committed to our sisters and brothers and our country as any golfer with the National Guard who sometimes presides over the Senate of the United States.”

She went on to ask the audience to vote for Senate candidates Dianne Feinstein, who attended the ceremony, and Barbara Boxer. “Two percent may be good enough for milk, but it isn’t good enough for the number of women in the U.S. Senate,” Firstenberg said.

The ceremony featured impassioned speeches-- with plenty of biting wit and self-deprecating humor--and ovations for honorees such as writer Maya Angelou, performers Lily Tomlin and Diahann Carroll and director Martha Coolidge. Also honored were Lilly Tartikoff, for her work in raising money to fight breast and ovarian cancer, and 30 women directors.

Another 55 women--among them Barbra Streisand--were inducted into the Hall of Fame of the nonprofit organization, which seeks to improve the employment and depiction of women in films and television. Also giving out awards were directors Francis Ford Coppola and Robert Altman.

But it was Streisand, honored for directing and starring in last year’s “The Prince of Tides,” who drew the most emotional response.

“Welcome to the year of the woman,” she said. “We’ve come a long way. Not too long ago we were referred to as dolls, tomatoes, chicks, babes, broads. We’ve graduated to being called tough cookies, foxes, bitches and witches. I guess that’s progress. Language gives us insight into the way women are viewed in a male-dominated society.”

Referring to criticism of her reputation for exercising complete control of her film projects, Streisand said: “If (a man) acts, produces and directs, he’s called a multitalented hyphenate. She’s called vain and egotistical.”

Streisand said she was angered by the difference in the way men and women are treated, “measured by a different yardstick. . . . Come to think of it, a lot of things make me angry. I’m angry about the depletion of the ozone layer, toxic waste. I’m angry about how they treated Anita Hill. I’m angry about what happened to Rodney King. I’m angry that the right of a woman to control her own body is even being questioned.”

Several of those honored focused on the progress made by women in the entertainment industry, particularly in the area of directing feature films. In 1974, when Women in Film was founded, only seven films were directed by women. In 1991-1992, 31 films were directed by women.

Said Martha Coolidge, who directed last year’s “Rambling Rose”: “For every male (Steven) Spielberg or (Stanley) Kubrick there is a female equivalent and we should find her.”

One of the biggest ovations of the event, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, was for National Public Radio correspondent Nina Totenberg, who won a Woman of Courage award for her reporting of the sexual harassment charges by Hill against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.