Sexual Equality in Directing

When looking for career choices to research Sexual Equality, Directing was the first field that came to mind. This field of work is challenging to make a name for yourself, so let's see how sexual equality exaggerates this issue even more. I will focus on directors within Hollywood as Hollywood is the most highly concentrated area of film creation. There are four different types of Equality that we will be studying. These include equality of ability, process, opportunity, and outcome. Within this paper, these pillars of equality will be reflected upon, and the reality of sexual equality within the directing field will be revealed.

Equality of Ability

Equality of ability refers to the physical demands of industries that often divide men and women. Directing has no physical needs that divide men and women or create an inability for one or the other. This aspect of sexual equality does not discount other more pressing issues within the film industry.

Equality of Process

Equality of process is equality regarding the treatment and respect that directors should receive within their industry. Female directors have a number of challenges that they face while trying to do their job. Slated, an online film-financing hub, has studied nearly 1600 films from 2010-2015 to uncover inequalities within the film industry. While Slated found that Studio Level films with a budget of at least $25 million had a distribution that was virtually equal, smaller films with a budget under $25 million that were directed by women, on average, were distributed to a third as many screens as those that were directed by men (Sun 2016). This is such a setback for female directors trying to succeed. These smaller films are exactly how directors break out into more extensive projects, but females will always be a step behind their male counterparts without equal distribution. Another major issue witnessed within the film industry is that female directors are often given a 25% smaller production budget than male directors. One might think this is because female-directed films make less money. It has been reported that films directed and created by women enjoy a greater return on investment than films by men. Studio films directed by women tended even to quadruple the money spent on the movie (Sun 2016). These numbers are shocking as they entirely oppose women's treatment in this field. The lack of process inequality is ultimately holding back and wasting the potential of female directors.

Equality of Opportunity

Equality of opportunity regards how difficult it is for male and female directors to get jobs, training, and funding for their projects. Within schools with large film concentrations, such as NYU or USC, the percentage of Male and Female students is 50/50. (MTV 2015). While this statistic seems optimistic, a study regarding the gender distribution of directors in the United States shows that only 21.8% of working directors are female (Statista 2021). It is alarming that such a large percentage of educated female directors are not working and getting recognition. A professor at the University of Southern California named Dr. Stacy L. Smith has made it her mission to research and understand gender bias within the media. She shows us that in 2021 only 12.7% of the directors of the Top Grossing films from 2007-2021 were female (Smith 2022). This staggering drop in female representation is alarming. Even with an equal number of male and female students interested in this field, such a low percentage of females are receiving the critical acclaim that males receive. This significant gap immediately calls into question the film industry's bias and brings attention to the issue of female representation.

Equality of Outcome

When discussing equality of outcome, one refers to the pay, recognition, and ability to advance within one's career. One of the main issues within this topic is pay. A study analyzing female producers and directors revealed that they received 89 cents to the dollar that men earned (Narrow the Gap 2021). This is a horrible reality that female directors face, constantly needing to struggle for the same treatment as male directors.

Another big issue within the equality of outcome category is award recognition. Film awards have a major effect on the success of movies within Hollywood. Awards such as the Oscars can shine a spotlight on films and give the creators and cast much-needed recognition if their film is worthy. However, this spotlight has consistently focused on male directors over the years. Of the 325 directors nominated for Golden Globe Awards, Academy Awards, Directors Guild of America Awards, and Critics Choice Awards from 2008-2022, only 29 of them happened to be female (Women and Hollywood 2022). Professor Smith stated that the lack of female nominations is that "The template of what it means to be a leader, or a director, is masculine in nature, and it's about helming male-driven stories" (Smith 2019). This image of masculinity has caused the process for female directors to be more difficult. Not only is it difficult to win these awards in general, but it is also difficult for women to get nominated in the first place.

Equality of Process is Most Important

Of the different pillars of sexual equality, equality of outcome is the most important. Equality of outcome regards the equal pay and recognition of both male and female directors. As discussed before, there are many disparages between male and female directors, especially within this category. This is the most critical category of sexual equality for many reasons. First, equal pay within industries is one of the most important issues in American society today. Female directors deserve to be paid the same as male directors, and the fact that there is such a gap currently is disheartening. This leads to the fact that female directors are not regarded equally when it comes to awards. This severely holds back many women and delays the success they deserve and need to advance their careers.

The other types of equality almost rely on equality of outcome to be improved since women need equal pay and recognition to be placed in the shadows of men and have less ability to build a name for themselves and find success as a result. Equal pay should not have to be debated in the first place, so this is the most essential aspect of sexual equality.

Child-Care Flexibility

When discussing Equality an aspect that must always be acknowledged is maternal-related issues that affect only females and not males. When thinking about possible issues a female might have to deal with one must think about the long set hours and intense schedule that usually goes along with directing. This lifestyle may not as easily align with for example the life of a new mother or a pregnant woman. This could potentially cause female directors to have to schedule projects around their life events. With proper resources and adequate care female directors in the past have directed while pregnant. Emerald Fennell, for example, was 7 months pregnant while she directed Promising Young Woman, in 2019. She even said that pregnancy "gave me this weird power for myself" (Vanhoose 2021). With this said, as long as female directors are given adequate care in need, they have the ability to do anything. Also since directing is on a project basis, if a female director is unable to work while pregnant, then she can pick and choose when to work. This does have a possibility of a female director missing out on projects based on medical reasons related to her sex.

Gender Quotas

I personally don't believe in the use of gender quotas. Based on the information showing the major gaps between male and female directors in categories such as pay, awards, and hiring, giving an equal chance to women would solve these issues. To me this doesn't mean only hiring women and raising their pay and lowering it for men, it means hiring a person based on their art and their talent. The fact that 50% of student directors are male and female shows that we have an equal amount of interested, talented people, they just need the ability to exert that talent. Gender quotas work to push out men and open more positions for women (OECD 23). I on the other hand believe that men and women should just have an equal opportunity and if more positions are needed then more should be opened.

Potential Quotas such as hiring majority women or only awarding women, take away from and diminish the actual success that those achievements deserve (Gender and the Economy 2018). I believe that people will discount and deduce any achievement if there is a set system promoting that success. This is the inverse of what is already happening where a specific group is being treated better than the other. So, the solution is to just treat both equally and not uphold these original systems only promoting and awarding male directors. Give female directors the place that they deserve and allow them to have an equal opportunity to impact the film industry.