Why is there such an absence of women in the realm of film making?
I am a female filmmaker at Ithaca, and lately I've been noticing the absence of other girls on film sets I work on, in my classes, at the Park Equipment Center where I work. On film sets if I'm not the only female on set, I'm one of two. In my cinema production class this semester, I'm one of 3 girls in a class of 15. I work at the Park camera equipment center and the majority of my coworkers are male.
It isn't just Ithaca that has this absence of women in film. A friend of mine, who is studying film at SUNY Purchase, has told me that she sees the same trend occurring there as well. There are always more men than women in her classes and she is always one of the only girls on set.
Within the classes of Cinema Production 2 this semester, the majority of directors are male and a very small amount are female. Even though, within my class at least, the women had the more creative and more well thought out ideas for films.
Why is this the case? Are women seen as inferior or incapable of handling the amount of work film requires?
The lack of women within the film industry very clearly isn't due to lack of capability or interest; it has to do with gender bias, whether it be conscious or subconscious. The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film recently did a study showing that women accounted for only 28% of the behind the scenes work within 2016-2017.
There is also the fact that, because men are the dominant gender within the film and television industry, they are the ones doing the hiring most of the time. Then even in the cases where women do get hired, they still get less recognition than men. They are the behind the scenes heroes that need to start moving into the spotlight.
So again, why is this the case in today's society?
I know that through my experience and what I've seen, women are just as capable as men on film sets. I also wouldn't hesitate to say they were more organized, better prepared and more creative within their film choices.
Why should people even care whether there are more women making films?
Films, even though we sometimes don't realize it, have a huge impact on society and our thoughts about the world around us. Media in general influences people daily and we continue see media everyday in our lives around us, whether we want to or not. The industry is growing, as well as its influence.
Women have a different perspective on the world than men do and therefore will create different media content than men. However, there are so few women in film, that it is incredibly hard to get that different perspective portrayed within the media industry. If there are less female filmmakers, there are less female influences within our society. This just encourages a more male dominated media industry, which we've had for decades.
This is most likely the reason for the lack of girls within my classes and student film sets. There should be more female influences for young aspiring girl filmmakers. I think it's time to start seeing more involvement for women within film and television.
