The Battle for Gender Equity in Hollywood: A Timeline
Women actors and directors on the red carpet at Cannes, 2018. Watch the full reportage HERE.
80% of all entertainment media distributed around the world is made in Hollywood. It is humanity's most influential form of communication, helping define our nation’s ethos, our global cultural narrative, and the very path of our civilization moving into the future.
- Maria Giese
Women’s battle for equal voice in Hollywood, especially among women directors, has been going on since the invention of the movie camera in 1896. The greatest moments of change have come as the result of legal actions and legislative change.
Each time we make a major advancement, it is thanks to our ability to stand on the shoulders of previous women and men who paved the way for us.
Unfortunately, too often it feels that we women make headway, then the numbers slip back again. In the pioneer days of Hollywood, women were welcomed in. Women owned studios, dominated screenwriting jobs, and directed thousands of films. Then, in 1928 the first talkie was made, big Wall Street money came in, the big studios were built, and the Hays Code introduced film censorship to the industry.
Suddenly it became clear that movies were not just very lucrative, but also very culturally influential—so influential that the industry needed to be guarded by those who rule: white men. After 1928, with very few exceptions, women directors all but vanished from the workplace until after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s and the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970’s. Even with the introduction of episodic TV, that provided many, many more directing jobs, in 1979 only ½ of one percent (0.5%) of directing jobs went to women, and about 0% to women directors of color.
Enter: The Original Six, six courageous and smart women DGA directors who convinced the Directors Guild of America to file a lawsuit against several major studios. This legal action sent the number of female director hires skyrocketing up to 16% between 1985 and 1995.
After 1995, that percentage went into decline for 2 decades, so that by 2012 just 13% of TV shows, and less than 4% of studio features, were directed by women.
Finally, in 2014, a new legal action was proposed to the EEOC and, then the ACLU. It would take three years to see results, but by 2019 Hollywood experienced the highest percentage of female director hires in history— up 130% in episodic TV, and hundreds of percentage points in studio feature films. The reason for this change? The 2014 ACLU and 2015 EEOC investigations into systemic discrimination against women directors in 2016 reportedly resulted in U.S. Department of Justice filing Commissioner’s Charges against the studios, networks, streaming giants, agencies, and unions.
In addition to the 2017 #MeToo movement that rose up after the Weinstein exposés, we believe the ACLU’s massive media campaign in 2014 put women directors on the map and made “speaking out” feel safe. A sea-change in female director employment began in the wake of the announcement of the 2015 EEOC investigation and the reports of industry settlement agreements with the federal government in 2017.
We at BRAINWASHED don’t want women and people of color to have to reinvent the wheel each generation—and because so much work still needs to be done to get us to parity—we are providing below a chronology of events leading to the present to keep the path clear for a future highway of full female participation in our nation’s storytelling industry.
– Maria Giese, Brainwashed Co-Producer
TIMELINE
1896
The Invention Of The Motion Picture Camera
In the early days of cinema, women were innovators in all positions of filmmaking, including writing, directing, and producing. Women owned studios, and directed thousands of films. Alice Guy-Blaché becomes the first woman to direct a motion picture with "La Fée Aux Choux" (The Cabbage Fairy), likely the first fiction film with a narrative.
1920
Women’s Suffrage in the United States
19th Amendment is ratified, giving women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
1928
The Hays Code
Federal oversight has always been anathema to Hollywood which prefers voluntary compliance of state and federal laws, including Title VII. The Hays Code, a precursor to the MPAA film rating system, was the industry’s first self-censorship list of guidelines. In conjunction with big Wall Street money entering Hollywood, the arrival of talkies, and the building of big studios, these guidelines contributed to the marginalization of women filmmakers for 50 years.
1938
First Female DGA Member
Two years after the founding of the “Directors Guild of America”, Dorothy Arzner joins the DGA as its first female member.
1963
Equal Pay Act
The Equal Pay Act was an important law for women, but it did nothing to bring women into cinema. Passed by Congress, this law promised “equitable wages for the same work, regardless of the race, color, religion, national origin or sex of the worker.”
1964
TITLE VII - Equal Employment Opportunity Law
This revolutionary law promised equal employment opportunity to women for the first time in U.S. history, but enforcement in Hollywood would be another story. “Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.” In 2014, Hollywood was the worst violator of all industries in the United States, including coal mining.
1969
EEOC One-day Hollywood Hearing
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) held a one-day hearing in Hollywood in which a clear pattern of race discrimination was established, but it did not explicitly include women. “I think we have established on the record today clear evidence of a pattern or practice of discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964” (EEOC General Counsel).
Women Make Movies
Founded by Ariel Dougherty and Sheila Paige, Women Make Movies helped elevate diverse women directors and producers.
Learn More
1972
TITLE IX Written Into Law
This equal opportunity law for women in education was the beginning of bringing gender parity to film schools, but until federal intervention in 2015 once women directors graduated, they confronted a professional that excluded them.
1977
New York Women in Film & Television is Founded
NYWIFT is a non-profit membership organization for professional women in film, television and digital media.
1978
Equal Employment Opportunity In The Motion Picture Industry
The California Advisory Committee to the Motion Picture industry wrote this 55-page report to assess the results of the Federal Government's enforcement effort since 1969. It discovered that "Sporadic and weak enforcement efforts by the Federal Government have allowed the industry to shirk its responsibilities. While expending considerable resources in the early 1970s, EEOC decided to discontinue its monitoring of the industry.” The report made 11 recommendations, including that "employers and unions should form an ongoing committee to develop methods acceptable to both parties for increasing opportunities for minorities and women.” Voluntary compliance would continue to fail women directors until the 2015 EEOC investigation transformed the landscape.
1979
The DGA Women’s Steering Committee Founded
Victoria Hochberg, Lynne Littman, Dolores Ferraro, Joelle Dobrow, Nell Cox, Susan Bay, or the so-called “Original Six” found the DGA-WSC and launch an investigation that leads the DGA to file a class-action lawsuit (for women and minority men) against several studios in 1983. This legal action increased the employment of women directors from 0.5% to 16% in just 10 years from 1985 to 1995.
1985
DGA Case Summary - Judge Pamela Rymer Ruling
This ruling in 1985 rightly disqualified the DGA from representing the class of women and minority male directors based on conflict of interest. A union comprised and run by mostly white male directors competing for jobs cannot fairly represent the interests of another group seeking to also competing for those same jobs. One result was new “Diversity” clauses in the DGA Basic Agreement and FLTTA calling for “good faith” efforts to hire more women and minorities with little or no enforcement.
1994
Jamaa Fanaka founds the DGA African American Committee
The great L.A. Rebellion director and DGA member launched other legal actions for women and minority directors against the DGA and studios. He also founded the DGA African American Committee in 1994. The following year Jay Roth is hired as National Executive Director of the DGA and Fanaka is forced out of the Guild by 1998. Fanaka's courageous work left an indelible mark on the industry.
1995
Female Director Hires Begin 20-year Decline
After a 10-year rise in female director hires, in 1995 the number begins a 20-year decline due to complacency, an ineffective DGA Diversity Program, and the failure of federal enforcement of equal employment opportunity law among women and minorities in Hollywood. DGA diversity programs and the DGA Diversity Task Force provide key gateways to TV directing jobs for women, but for almost two decades, until the ACLU/EEOC investigations forced change, the percentage of female director hires remained static.
1997
Alliance Of Women Directors
The AWD is established to support and promote the work, visibility, and professional development for female directors through a variety of programs including screenings, educational events and industry parties both for their members and the general public.
1998
The Celluloid Ceiling Report
Dr. Martha Lauzen at the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University begins compiling reports to track employment statistics for women in Hollywood. Prior to this, the only entity tracking female director hires was the Directors Guild of America.
2000
Early Women Filmmakers Summit
Five years into the decline, director Allison Anders launched a Summit for women filmmakers to bring unity and discuss solutions to the exclusion of women in the industry.
Major Sex Discrimination Lawsuit Win In News Media
CBS Broadcasting agrees to pay $8 million to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit by the EEOC on behalf of 200 women. This action helped inform future legal action against female director employment discrimination in Hollywood.
2002
The First Female DGA President
A member since 1983, feature film director Martha Coolidge is elected as the first female president of the DGA.
2004
DGA Diversity Task Force
DGA president Michael Apted announces the DGA DTF co-chaired by himself and Paris Barclay. This “Force” is a small committee comprised of DGA members providing them the opportunity to interface with studios and networks to advance diversity hiring, particularly among TV directors. Until 2013, the DTF functioned in relative secrecy and embodied precisely the sort of conflict-of-interest problems Judge Pamela Rymer referred to in her 1985 ruling.
The Geena Davis Institute For Gender & Media
Concerned about the underrepresentation of women and girls on the screen, in 2004 actor Geena Davis founded GDIGM. This research-based organization began working collaboratively within the entertainment industry to create gender balance, foster inclusion and reduce negative stereotyping in family entertainment media.
2006
#METOO on MySpace
Eleven years before the 2017 #MeToo movement begins, Tarana Burke first posts #MeToo on Myspace in pursuit of “supporting and amplifying the voices of survivors of sexual abuse, assault and exploitation”.
Race & Ethnicity - Prospects For A Title VII Lawsuit
UCLA Chicano Studies Research center publishes a prospective Title VII-based legal action for on-the-screen representation of people of color. “This brief explores the legality of discriminatory breakdowns, looking in particular at the gap between the broad promise of equal employment in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the reality of continuing exclusionary treatment within the film industry. It examines the potential for lawsuits based on Title VII’s equal employment opportunity provisions and offers recommendations for viable alternatives.”
2007
Women And Hollywood Blog
This provocative blog engages filmgoers and filmmakers with news and information highlighting women filmmakers and agitates for increased opportunities for women.
2008
DGA Women’s Steering Committee Launches Facebook Site
The advent of the internet and social media proved to be profoundly effective in the advancement of women, providing both access to information and each other. It would take time, but four years after launching, starting 2012, this DGA-WSC Facebook site provided the first effective platform for women DGA members to battle discrimination in the industry through information, debate, and solidarity.
2009
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
A giant milestone in the long battle for equal pay, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 is a federal statute in the United States that was the first bill signed into law by US President Barack Obama on January 29, 2009. The act amends Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and states that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination resets with each new paycheck affected by that discriminatory action.
2010
TITLE VII Litigation Strategy For Women Playwrights On Broadway
This article by Marisa Rothstein published in the “Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender” helped inform legal arguments for women directors presented to the DGA, the ACLU, and the EEOC.
Writers Guild Of America (WGA) Wins Age Discrimination Lawsuit
Twenty-three class action lawsuits filed against studios, networks, and talent agencies alleging intentional and unintentional age discrimination in the selection and representation of older television writers. The amount of the settlement is $70 million, the largest-ever settlement in the history of age discrimination litigation. The success of this legal action helped inform approaches to legal action for women directors.
2012
“Women Directors In Hollywood” Blog Founded
“The absence of women’s voices in entertainment media storytelling is tantamount to the censoring and silencing of women everywhere.” This blog begins the move for women directors toward center stage and forms key arguments that will be used by the ACLU in 2014 and 2015. The articles on the blog expose the failure of DGA diversity programs, and the need for legal action. While the site no longer exists, most of the articles on this site are preserved by Film Inquiry: “Maria Giese VS Holllywood”
2013
ACLU & EEOC Engagement For Women Directors
On February 14, 2013 in Los Angeles, the EEOC meets with Maria Giese to discuss a Title VII-based industry-wide lawsuit for women directors in Hollywood. Several months later, Giese's first meeting with the ACLU would result in engagement. After a two-year investigation, the ACLU called on the EEOC to investigate discrimination against women directors. The ACLU is the nation’s most powerful nonprofit civil rights watchdog. The EEOC (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) is a large federal agency established via the 1964 Civil Rights Act to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination
DGA Women Of Action Summit
This historic and groundbreaking DGA-WSC “Women of Action” Summit was the biggest summit ever held for women directors in Hollywood. The one-day Summit included panels and brainstorming session that challenged the industry’s unfair hiring practices. It helped unite and inform women directors as a collective, and put the industry on notice that Title VII-based legal action could be imminent.
Proposals Committee Report
Five months after the Summit, the DGA-WSC Proposal Sub-committee prepares a report proposing key solutions to discrimination against women directors.
Film Fatales Is Founded
A nonprofit which advocates for parity in the film industry and supports an inclusive community of hundreds of women and non-binary feature film and television directors nationwide.
2014
Ms. Magazine Article ‘Lights, Camera, Inaction’
Appearing in the summer print edition of Ms. Magazine, this was the first mainstream media article to point the finger at Hollywood as the worst Title VII violator of every industry in the United States, counting female director employment at just 4%, and suggesting the need for legal action. It further provided key proposals for change: employment strategy for women directors, contractual requirements for diversity hiring, equitable on-screen representation of women, and challenges to DGA diversity.
Legal Action For Women Directors
In September, the ACLU announces their intent to investigate discrimination against women directors.
Glass Elevator Is Founded
A free, membership-based networking, skill-sharing and jobs resource for women filmmakers.
2015
The New York Times Publishes ‘Lights, Camera, Taking Action’
This extraordinary year of seismic change for women directors begins when The New York Times writer Manohla Dargis spotlights the issue of discrimination and DGA complicity in the problem.
Federal Investigation Begins For Women Directors
May 12: The New York Times announces that the ACLU had sent a 15-page letter to the DOJ EEOC and two other government agencies calling for an industry-wide investigation into systemic discrimination against women directors.
The Los Angeles Times Announces The Federal Investigation Is On
May 13: Just five months after the ACLU letter is received by the Department of Justice EEOC and two other government organizations, federal agents begins reaching out to women directors. This marks the beginning of the historic federal investigation for into industrywide systemic discrimination against women directors in Hollywood.
DGA Annual Meeting Fails to Mention ACLU Letter To EEOC
May 13: That evening the DGA president Paris Barclay runs the Guild’s biggest annual meeting for its membership. Although the very raison d’etre of this union is to represent the creative and economic rights of its director members and their teams—including its female members—the historic news that the ACLU had called upon the EEOC to launch an investigation Into systemic industry-wide discrimination women directors, the news was not mentioned even once by Barclay or anyone else in the DGA leadership.
Secret Meeting of Hollywood Insiders Seeks Solutions to Gender Inequity
In October, less than two weeks after the announcement of the EEOC investigation, 44 top Hollywood players, including representatives from agencies, unions, and studios gather in a secret 2-day meeting to discuss inside-industry solutions to discrimination against women. They come up with a 4-point solution, one of which is a ‘gender parity stamp’ and the private inside-industry, “Systemic Change Project”.
The Systemic Change Project is Founded
In December, as Hollywood clamors to control the narrative on the federal investigation into employment discrimination against women directors, this inside industry initiative receives support from corporations, Wall Street, Hollywood, and private foundations, including BMW, Women at Sundance, The Harnisch Foundation, Jacquelyn & Gregory Zehner Foundation, Morgan Stanley, and IMDbPro.
‘The Bechdel Test’ Becomes An International Standard
Created by Pulitzer Prize-winner Allison Bechdel in 1985, and inspired by Virginia Woolf, this simple, brilliant test quickly identifies gender discrimination in movies: “Two or more women in a film who have a conversation for two or more minutes about anything that isn’t a man.”
2016
Donald Trump Defeats Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Presidential Election
50/50x2020 At The Cannes Film Festival
The campaign #5050x2020 is launched at the Cannes Film Festival by Anna Serner when the Swedish Film Institute hosted an event titled FiftyFifty by 2020.
Free The Bid
Director Alma Har’el founds a non-profit searchable database for female director hires in commercials. Later, it will expand to TV and feature films, and in 2019 to ‘Free The Work’ for underrepresented creators.
2017
The Women's March
January 21st: The day after the inauguration of president Donald Trump, the Women’s March was a worldwide protest, the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.
EEOC Files “Commissioners Charges” Against Industry, Studios
February 15th: Deadline reports “that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is in negotiations with the major movie studios to settle agency charges of systemic sex discrimination against women directors. “ Three days later, the ACLU writes: “We are elated that the EEOC may have done precisely what we asked of it: used its authority as the government agency charged with enforcing the nation’s anti-discrimination laws to hold the major studios accountable for sex discrimination against women directors.”
ReFrame is Founded by Sundance and Women In Film
In February, just as reports emerge that the EEOC has filed employment discrimination charges against the industry, fifty Hollywood leaders and influencers, including studio heads, agency partners, senior network executives, talent and guild representatives brought together by Women In Film and Sundance Institute announce the launch of ReFrame, a formal action plan to further gender parity in the media industry.
Women’s Media Summit
This inaugural Women’s Media Summit founded by Christine Walker and Maria Giese was a three-day think-tank designed to solve gender inequity in U.S. entertainment media. Based on the 2013 DGA-WSC Summit, this event strove to take the issue of gender inequality out of Hollywood and put it in the hands of women in governance, news media, academia, law, independent entertainment media as an ongoing mission. Keynote by Victoria Hochberg who was presented with the 2017 “Persistence of Vision” award.
Weinstein Exposés In The New York Times & The New Yorker
October 5: The strong reaction to the election of Trump combined with the news of the ACLU and federal investigations in Hollywood, helped embolden the U.S. news media and American women to speak out against sexual harassment, employment discrimination and pay inequality, especially in the film industry. The New York Times had reportedly been sitting on the Weinstein story for 13 years, since 2004. With the help of major stars like Matt Damon, The New York Times had reportedly been suppressing the Weinstein story for 13 years, since 2014.
THR Connects Weinstein Exposés With EEOC Probe
The Weinstein exposés were a “watershed moment” for the EEOC settlements because they revealed how sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace are symptoms of employment discrimination. “The significance of this investigation is profound because at the heart of it is a civil rights argument about just who tells the stories that make up our cultural narrative.
The #METOO Movement Is Galvanized
October 15: Alyssa Milano tweets “Me too” bringing Tarana Burke’s previous #MeToo to popularity, galvanizing the #MeToo movement.
The Academy Announces Standards Of Conduct
December 6: The board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approves new "Standards of Conduct" to which its 8,427 members will be expected to adhere moving forward: “The Academy is categorically opposed to any form of abuse, harassment or discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability, age, religion, or nationality.”
The Hollywood Commission
This inside-industry “Commission” was co-founded in late 2017 by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and entertainment attorney and Time’s Up co-founder Nina Shaw to “bring together influential entertainment companies, unions and guilds to develop and implement cross-industry systems and processes to eradicate harassment, discrimination and power abuse and create lasting cultural change in Hollywood.”
The Inclusion Rider
December: Created by Kalpana Kotagal, Stacy Smith & Fanshen DiGiovanni (of Matt Damon’s Pearl Street Films), an inclusion rider or equity rider is a provision in an actors or filmmakers contract that provides for a certain level of diversity in casting and production staff.
Frances McDormand Endorses the Inclusion Rider at the Oscars
Women In Media Is Founded
This membership-based organization promotes gender balance in the film and entertainment industries through networking, professional development, and advocacy.
2018
Cannes Film Festival - Movie Stars Take the Lead
Female movie stars fully emboldened to now speak out join the publicity party. “Eighty-two stars and executives took to the steps of the Palais to symbolize the number of women who have been featured in the festival's competition over its 71-year history”.
Time’s Up Foundation
TIME’S UP began as a germ of an idea inside the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in the wake of the ACLU and federal investigations into systemic discrimination against women directors. Two years later, after the October 2017 Weinstein exposés, it coalesced into a legal defense fund for Hollywood’s female victims of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. Following media criticisms of elitism, the fund announced it had broadened to include women across all industries in the U.S. The foundation continues to be an inside-industry solution to controlling the narrative of gender-based Title VII violations in Hollywood (and beyond). It consists of a charitable Foundation, a Legal Defense Fund, and an Impact Lab.
Time’s Up Movement
CAA and partners expanded the Time’s Up organization into a “movement” in response to the October 2017 Weinstein exposés. On January 1, 2018 it was announced that more than 300 women working in film, television, and theater had co-signed a letter detailing the initiative’s mission.
Proctor & Gamble Pledges 50% Women Directors On Commercials
P&G, the world’s biggest advertiser that spends $7 billion a year on ads, promises to hire 50% women to direct its ads by 2023.
2019
Female Director Hires Reach Record Highs in 2019
The percentage of women working as directors on narrative films has more than doubled over the last decade, rising from 15% in 2008-09 to 33% in 2019-20.
The Power Of Inclusion Summit
The tidal wave of change toward greater inclusion of women and diverse voices in entertainment media resulted in many summits and events across the country and around the world. The Power of Inclusion Summit took place just months before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered film and TV production around the world. Major announcements included the record highs in female director employment and hopes for an internationalizing of the battle for female voices in global entertainment media.
The 4% Challenge
Announced at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, the “4% Challenge” was a Time’s Up and USC Annenberg campaign that called upon studios, celebrities, and filmmakers to hire at least 4% women directors within the next 18 months. The campaign was criticized on social media as a “collegial, inside Hollywood effort of voluntary compliance that sets the bar about 46 percentage points too low.”
2020
The Covid-19 Pandemic Shuts Down Hollywood
The welcome news of the historic rise in woman director hires comes just months before the global Covid-19 pandemic sweeps into California and the rest of the United States, suspending productions all across the country. As they slowly begin again, their cost is higher and there are fewer people making films and series. It remains to be seen if this will set back equitable hiring practices in Hollywood.
2022
BRAINWASHED: SEX-CAMERA-POWER PREMIERES
Our feature film documentary premieres at Sundance and the Berlinale to rave reviews!
MARIA GIESE
Maria Giese is an American director, screenwriter and journalist. She wrote and directed three award-winning short films and two feature films: When Saturday Comes starring Sean Bean, Emily Lloyd and Pete Postlethwaite, and Hunger based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winner, Knut Hamsun. In 2015, after four years of activism in the Directors Guild of America, Giese became the person who instigated the biggest industry-wide federal investigation for women directors in Hollywood history.
In The New York Times, Manohla Dargis referred to her work as “a veritable crusade.” Giese is a subject of three recent books and two feature films, Half The Picture (2018) and This Changes Everything (2019) describing her work getting the ACLU and EEOC to investigate this issue—the ramifications of which are resonating globally. Giese holds a BA from Wellesley College and an MFA from UCLA’s Graduate School of Theatre, Film & Television.
Maria Giese is Co-Producer on BRAINWASHED
