On the heels of an epic Season Six finale, the powers that be on the "Game of Thrones" production staff announced the four directors who hold the second to last season of the beloved fantasy show in their hands. It only took a quick glance over to tell me the two things I needed to know: 1. The directors for Season Seven look really qualified and great and 2. They’re all men.

I mean, I’m not surprised. Female directors are notoriously underemployed these days. But after doing a little bit of digging, I realized it was worse than I thought. "Game of Thrones" hadn’t had a female director since Season Four, and as wonderful as Michelle MacLaren is, she is truly the first, and only, of her name. She’s the Khaleesi of the "Game of Thrones" directors club, not only because she’s a fantastic at her job, but because she has no other female competition for the title. It seems this situation extends to the writers room as well. It’s a little better, but out of the 60 episodes put out so far by HBO, only four of them give a woman a writing credit. Are we going to credit that as an oversight, or start owning up to the fact that "Game of Thrones"' “women problem” goes deeper than we thought.

Michelle MacLaren being the Khaleesi of "Game of Thrones" directors via www.queensu.ca

Don’t get me wrong; I love "Game of Thrones." But I would be lying if I said we didn’t have our ups and downs throughout the past six seasons. So many memories; some good — Blackwater, Battle of the Bastards, the entire second season — and some not so good — Ros, Myrcella, Shireen, the decision to rape Sansa Stark, the entire Sand Snakes plot line and dialogue— I think it’s fair to say our relationship status is complicated.

Over the past seasons, it has become clear that for every multifaceted female character I see on my screen, there’s a pair of tits and an ass that you get to parade around under the banner: whore. For every piece of brilliant Cersei Lannister characterization, there’s a Sand Snake. Sansa Stark coolly tells Ramsay Bolton he will die tomorrow just as many times as Tyene Sand utters the infamous “bad pussy” line. I’m not disputing that Season Six was a great one for the women of Westeros, but that doesn’t mean longstanding issues have magically disappeared.

The reason I watch "Game of Thrones" via Entertainment Weekly

"Game of Thrones," HBO, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, you need female writers and directors. Aiming to fix the issues with your female characters and then not employing anyone who could give you a different perspective on those issues is like putting a painting in front of a crack in the wall. It looks great for now, but you still have structural damage behind the scenes.