On Sunday, many of us sat down and watched the Golden Globes. The nominees for best director had me thinking a little bit. Here were the nominees:
Last year, the nominees were the following movies:
I noticed a trend (almost all men). I never really noticed before that I scarcely ever saw a woman in this category. It seemed normal to me that a man was a director. Though Ava DuVernay did not win best director, it certainly sparked my attention when she was nominated. Why don’t we see more women directing these critically-acclaimed films just as much as men?
I started doing some research, and found an interesting article about women in the directing business. The researcher Martha M. Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, found that in 2013, female characters made up just 15 percent of protagonists and 30 percent of all speaking characters in the top 100 grossing movies. Female directors generally direct more movies about women than male directors do, but they need the means to do so. It becomes a vicious cycle where a woman can’t get hired because of her lacking credentials, and then as a result is unable to build her resumé, meaning less women in this field. Women can’t prove they are equally qualified for the job if they aren’t given the opportunity in the first place. We need to diversify the voice that tells us stories in America. If the people making decisions about movies continues to be all male, we’re only getting one angle. Something has to be done about diversifying the directing industry.
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