Hollywood
Judy Garland and Billie Burke in “The Wizard of Oz.” (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
Over the past century in Hollywood, women have been marginalized both on screen and behind the scenes; though recent research has seen an increase in female lead films, inequality on both sides of the camera persists, as male characters are still more likely to be heard, shown at work and presented as three dimensional. While many look back towards the Golden Age of Hollywood with rose colored nostalgia, new research suggests that the rise of the studio system — credited as being founded by five middle aged, white men — was the driving force behind this disparity, as male producers tended to hire male directors, writers and talent. While this gender imbalance continues to resonate today, the number of films directed by women rises each year, and research shows that the gender of a person behind the camera is key to delivering equity on screen (Broom, 2020).
The Hollywood studio system was founded by five men — Adolph Zukor, Louis B. Mayer, and brothers Jack, Harry and Sam Warner — which resulted in Paramount Pictures, Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Warner Brothers Pictures, respectively. The studios were considered “dream factories”, and while the period has been romanticized in cinematic history, the studios primary focus and function served to deliver a consistent product and make money. All talent were under tight contract, and the system churned out memorable films like “Casablanca”, “The Wizard of Oz” and “Singing in the Rain”. Prior to this era, in the 1910’s and 1920’s, opportunities for women were abundant; female actors, writers, directors and producers were pioneers of the silent-film era.
The rise of the studio system, however, coincided with a dip in opportunities for women in all four of the aforementioned categories — an imbalance that would last decades. “At this point, the supposed danger of women in Hollywood was not just that they were seen as ignorant about how to run a business but also that many of the works they produced had racial, feminist themes” (Jones, 2020). What followed was a systemic removal of women from positions of influence in Hollywood, in a capitalistic effort to prevent a broader population from being exposed to the perceived threat of feminism.
In the 1940’s “Gone With the Wind” actress Olivia de Havilland sought out to broaden her body of work away from the “nice girl” typecasting the studios had been offering her; at that time, the studio could suspend talent for turning down a role. When her seven-year Warner Bros. contract came to an end in 1943, the studio attempted to force her to work an additional six months to account for a prior suspension. De Havilland sued the studio for violating labor law — a gutsy move that others actors like James Cagney and Bette Davis had tried, and failed, to do before. The court ruled in her favor, in a landmark decision that permanently altered the way actors were hired, compensated and managed in Hollywood. “These legal changes took the power away from a handful of men and gave more people the power to start changing the industry,” said Northwestern University researcher Luis Amaral (Wu, 2020). Newly empowered women began to hire their own female employees, and studio monopolies began to unravel.
In a study conducted by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, Dr. Martha M. Lauzen researched the ways in which gender stereotyping in film exists through lack of representation; the study of the highest-grossing films of 2019 showed that nearly three-quarters of male characters had a clear occupation, compared to the less than two-thirds of female characters. More than half of female characters were in the 20’s and 30’s, compared to nearly 60% of the male characters in their 30’s and 40’s (Broom, 2020).The study also showed that when a movie has at least one female director or writer, women are far more likely to be cast in leading roles; nearly 60% of female directed films feature a female protagonist, compared to less than a third of films directed by men.
Interestingly, these disproportionate ratios exist in the world of animated films, as well. In an analysis of the dialogue of the Disney library, linguists Carmen Fought and Karen Eisenhauer found that the amount of dialogue spoken by women and men was relatively equal in earlier films like “Snow White” and “Cinderella”, but that would begin to change during the late 1980’s and 1990’s — a period of time considered to be the Disney renaissance. In “The Little Mermaid”, men speak 68% of the time; in “Beauty and the Beast”, 71% of the time; in “Aladdin”, 90% of the time; in “Pocahontas”, 76% of the time (Chitwood, 2016). According to Fought, “There’s one isolated princess trying to get someone to marry her, but there are no women doing any other things. Everybody who’s doing anything else, other than finding a husband in the movie, pretty much, is a male.” Notably, the study showed that newer films like “Tangled” and the “Frozen” franchise were trending in a more balanced direction.
While opportunities for women continue to increase in Hollywood, the shifting landscape of streaming had forced studios to re-strategize the ways in which films are released, and women continue to fight for equality and take on the study monopoly like Olivia de Havilland did in 1943. In 2021, “Black Widow” star Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against the Walt Disney Co. alleging a reported $50 million in lost bonus payments after the studio’s decision to release the film concurrently in theaters and to stream on its Disney+ platform. The suit claimed Johansson’s compensation was largely based on the box office success of the film, and the hybrid release strategy was meant to benefit the media conglomerate in boosting stock price and growing Disney+ subscribers. In a misogynistic attack, Disney accused Johansson of having a “callous disregard” for the Covid-19 pandemic, even disclosing her salary for her work on the film publicly. The studio eventually settled with its “Black Widow” star, paying her the $50 million she was entitled to. Just as in Olivia de Havilland’s lawsuit against Warner Bros., Johansson’s courage in taking on the most powerful studio in the world impacted countless others, as contracts are now written with regard to both box office and streaming revenue.
The 93rd Academy Award nominations marked another victory for women in Hollywood as two women were nominated for Best Director for the first time in history. Additionally, 2020 saw 16% of the top 100 highest-grossing films directed by women — an increase of over 400% from two years prior (Whitten, 2021). In other roles, though, the lack of progress remains glaring; in 2020, women made up only 6% of cinematographers, and the number of female screenwriters has yet to surpass the 22% figure in 1922, where the silent film era saw more equity than today. Research has shown that if current trends continue, it could take as long as a century to close this gender gap. The medium of film is one of the most valued touchstones of modern culture, reflecting the progresses and failures of our shared ideologies; it remains clear that providing women vital opportunities both on screen and behind the scenes is a step toward achieving true equality both in film and in society.
Sources
Amaral, N. L. A. (2020, April 1). Long-term patterns of gender imbalance in an industry without ability or level of interest differences. PLOS One. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/ journal.pone.0229662
Broom, D. More women than ever are working in Hollywood, but men still dominate key roles. (2021, September 28). World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/02/women- hollywood-starring-role-equality-diversity/
Chitwood, A. (2016, Jan 27) Disney Movies Study Finds Men Speak More Than Women In ‘Little Mermaid’, Other Classics. Collider. https://collider.com/disney-movies-study-women-men-little- mermaid/
Jones, N. M. (2020, March 30). In the Silent Era, Hollywood's Power Players Were Women. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/02/naomi-mcdougall-jones-wrong-kind-of- women-excerpt/606277/
Malvern, J. (2020, April 2). Golden age of Hollywood left women on cutting room floor. News | The Times. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/golden-age-of-hollywood-left-women-on-cutting- room-floor-nn2hk7sks?region=global
Whitten, S. (2021, April 23). As women directors enter the Oscar spotlight, here are 13 filmmakers to watch. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/22/oscars-2021-13-women- directors-making- waves-in-hollywood-.html
Wu, K. (2020, April 3). Hollywood's 'Golden Age' Saw Massive Dip in Female Film Representation. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hollywoods-golden-age- saw-massive-dip-female-representation-films-180974573/