Behind the Lens, Men Still Rule

In a bleak assessment of female employment in Hollywood, two separate studies have concluded that women continue to lag significantly behind their male counterparts in key creative positions even as the movie and television industries enjoy boom times.

The Directors Guild of America came out with a report this week showing that the number of days worked by female film directors fell from 8.8% of the total in 1996 to 7% last year, with the actual number of days worked by women sliding from 4,233 to only 3,411.

“I’m rather shocked by the downward trend,” DGA President Jack Shea said. “I don’t understand it. Our general trend since we started [collecting data] in the early 1980s . . . has been going up--slowly, slowly, and not fast enough as far as I’m concerned. Suddenly, to see this turn down when we thought it was going up and business is so good, something has to be done.”

The findings for female directors echoed another recent study conducted for Women in Film that concluded that while more females are being employed as directors, producers, writers, editors and cinematographers, their numbers still fall far short of men.

“I think the bottom line with the study is that we found women were underrepresented behind the scenes and remain underrepresented,” said Martha M. Lauzen, a professor at San Diego State’s school of communication, who conducted the study.

Lauzen, who analyzed employment by motion picture studio and by film genre, researched the top 100 grossing movies of 1997, 1992 and 1987. The 300 films included such familiar titles as “Men in Black,” “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “Batman Returns,” “Home Alone 2,” “Sister Act” and “Fatal Attraction.”

She found that while the number of female producers, executive producers and writers increased significantly over the past decade, the number of female directors, cinematographers and editors remained stagnant.

For example, only 5% of the top 100 top-grossing films released last year were directed by women--up from 3% in 1987. Meanwhile, no female cinematographers worked on any of the 300 movies examined.

“It means that women are shut out in the role of cinematographers and virtually shut out as directors,” Lauzen said. “You have some high-profile directors like a Penny Marshall, and she gets lots of press, but 5% is a relatively low number.”

As for cinematographers, Lauzen noted that only 2% of the 161 members of the American Society of Cinematographers are female. In order to join the society, the study said, individuals must have three sponsors and have served as a director of photography for at least five years.

The study also found:

* On average, men outnumbered women 8-to-1 per film in behind-the-scenes roles.

* Nearly half (45%) of the films examined had no female executive producers, producers, directors, writers, cinematographers or editors.

* Women comprised 20% of the producers (including co-producers) working in the top 100 films last year, up from 12% a decade ago. When a woman worked as executive producer, the average number of women working behind the scenes doubled.

* Women comprised 13% of the writers in the top 100 films last year, up from 7% in 1987.

* Women comprised 15% of the editors in the top 100 films last year, up slightly from 13% a decade earlier.

* The highest percentage of female directors (33%) worked on musicals, followed by “dramadies” (29%) and action-adventure (11%). No women directed a movie in the drama, horror/slasher, animated, gangster, romantic comedy or sci-fi genres.

The study sought to dispel the belief that films directed by women fare worse at the box office than those made by men. It noted that the average domestic box-office gross of top 100 films directed by women was $42.8 million compared to $41.7 million for men.

Of all the major studios, the study concluded, Disney employed the greatest numbers of women in key filmmaking roles, while New Line Cinema had the highest percentage of women in those jobs. However, tiny MGM/UA, which has spent years struggling to right itself financially, employed the least number of women in key filmmaking jobs.

“Do I think all the men in Hollywood got together and said, ‘We’re going to keep women out of the business’?” Lauzen said. “I don’t think this is a conspiracy, but I think what is probably happening is there are subtle but pervasive biases that make it difficult for women to succeed in certain behind-the-scenes roles.” Lauzen said her next step will be to identify those biases.

Lauzen’s study was conducted for Women in Film, whose members work in every part of the business, including film, broadcast and cable television.

The Directors Guild findings focused only on its own 11,250 members--22% of whom are women and 7% are minorities. They work in movies and television as directors, first and second assistant directors, associate directors, stage managers and unit production managers.

In addition to women, the DGA found that minority directors comprised only 6.4% of the total number of days worked in 1997.

Shea said he does not know the specific reasons why the number of days worked by female and minority directors has declined in the past year, but noted that as budgets rise in filmmaking, studio executives and producers often are inclined to go with someone they’ve worked with before.

“I think as [production] prices go higher, every executive who makes a decision [feels] his title is on the line as to whether he is going to stay there,” Shea said. “I think that is part of it.”

He added that television does a better job of hiring women and minorities partly because the costs are so much lower and producers can take chances.

Shea said the guild has three active committees dealing with female, Latino and African American directors. Each of those committees, he said, sponsors events where guild members can mingle with producers and studio executives. Networking, he noted, is extremely important if female and minority directors want to climb the ladder of success in Hollywood.

“A number of us remember when we came into this business and it was purely white male,” Shea said. “We don’t want to see it anywhere near that again.”