Old 'stereotypes' still keeping female directors down, finds new study

A new study commissioned found that the gender gap between directors is at its widest in top-grossing films.

Women In Film and the Sundance Institute's study found that one of the main reasons behind men outnumbering women 23-to-1 as directors of the 1,300 top-grossing films since 2002 is gender stereotyping, the Deadline reported.

Cathy Schulman, President of Women In Film Los Angeles, said that female filmmakers face deep-rooted presumptions from the film industry about their creative qualifications, sensibilities, tendencies and ambitions, adding that now they need to move a heavy boat through deep waters, and WIF is committed to year-round action until sustainable gender parity is achieved.

The study found that the gender gap widens with each step that women directors take up the distribution ladder, widening from 4-to-1 for U.S. films shown in dramatic competition at Sundance to 6-to-1 for films distributed theatrically on more than 250 screens to 23-to-1 for the top-grossing films.

In the study, in which interviews were conducted with 59 buyers and sellers of movies and 41 women directors to gauge the impediments the latter group faces in the job market, 41 percent said that the marketplace has a built-in gender bias that female directors are perceived to make films for a less significant portion of the marketplace, while films directed by males are perceived to reach a wider and more lucrative segment of the market.

The research found that one explanation for this difference is the tendency to 'think director, think male,' or to describe the job of a director or profitable film content in masculine terms.

The study concluded that it is clear that the film industry must grapple with not only the paucity of female directors working at its highest ranks but also the image industry leaders hold regarding female directors, adding that to journey from gender inequality to parity, decision-makers and advocates must work to alter their perceptions about what women can and want to do in their careers.

It added that this requires moving away from narrow and limiting stereotypes to conceptions of women that are as open and unbounded as those surrounding men.