Tangled Magazine

Sherry Lansing, the former CEO of Paramount Pictures, broke the glass ceiling in 1992 when she became the first woman to head a major movie studio. In 2004, that number rose, with four of the five major studios employing female CEOs. Today, however, it appears to that the prospects for women in the film industry are not as promising.

The film industry has always hired women: make up artists, costume designers, actresses, and assistants are plentiful. However, in behind the scenes power roles, women are a rarity. According to statistics, roughly equal numbers of men and women attend UCLA and NYU film schools. So why don’t more women hold positions of power?

Dr Martha Lauzen, who holds a PhD in Public Communications, started the “Celluloid Ceiling” annual survey in the early 90s in an effort to find out. Her research shows a small percentage of women working both in front of and behind the camera. Startlingly, there has been little difference over the course of her study, and prospects for women seem to be diminishing.

A study of the top 250 grossing (USA) films of 2007, showed that only 15% had a female director, executive producer, producer, writer, cinematographer or editor on staff. This number is down 2% from 1998, and shows no change from 2006. Equally disturbing, is a comparison of women’s employment on the top 250 films in 2007 and 1998 which reveals that the percentage of women in every role considered has declined.

The Celluloid Ceiling study of 2007 also revealed that women comprised 2% of all cinematographers working on the top 250 films. 98% of the films had no female cinematographers.

Lynda Obst, another woman who broke though the barrier to producer films like How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days, and Sleepless In Seattle Lynda says, “I don’t feel prejudice against me, not like in the early days, but it’s not like the heyday either. It’s a boys’ era. And the market is driving that.”

It appears that actress Jodie Foster agrees, ““It’s a business… and I don’t think that women have so far proven the same capacity to bring people into the box office”.

So how is it that some women manage to have successful careers, and not others?

Divorced, Sherry Lansing started her career as an actress, starring in small roles opposite John Wayne in the early 70s. She realised however that acting wasn’t her calling, and she decided to take a job as a script reader at MGM. With time, Sherry was promoted to Vice President of Creative Affairs. She later moved around a bit, from Vice President at Columbia Pictures to President of 20th Century Fox. Still uncertain of what her role was, she co-started Jaffe-Lansing Productions, and independent production company in 1983. She spent the next decade cultivating her relationship with Paramount Pictures and in 1991 married director William Friedkin. This however didn’t hold her back and in 1992, she became the Chair and CEO of Paramount Pictures Motion Group. Six of the 10 highest grossing Paramount films were released while she had this position and 80% of films released under her leadership were profitable. In 2004, after Viacom decided to split Paramount into two companies, she resigned. Forbes once listed her as number 5 of the 50 Most Powerful Women in America.

Graduating from law school in 1985, Stacey Snider attempted to find work at a movie studio with little success. In 1986, she began work as a secretary for producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Just over a year later, she changed jobs again, this time working for Guber-Peters Entertainment Company. In 1989 Gruber and Peters were named co-chairmen of Sony’s Columbia Pictures, and Stacey moved with them. From there she worked her way through the company to become President of Production at TriStar Pictures (a Sony company). In that same year, she had her first child, and took a year off to focus on motherhood. In 1997, she became Co-President of Production at Universal Pictures. By 1999, she had become sole president of production, co-chairman and then sole chairman of Universal, she also had another daughter in the same year. During her first two years as chairman, nine of Universal’s films grossed more than $100 million in domestic box office sales. In 2006, she left her Chairman position at Universal, to become CEO and Co-Chairman of Dreamworks, which allowed her to spend more time with her family. Forbes rated her the 59th most powerful woman in America in 2005.

Director Catherine Hardwick started her working life as an architect, designing townhouses in Texas. Unsatisfied with what she was doing, she moved to LA to study film at UCLA. It was during this time that she made her first short film, and others began to see her talent. She won the Nissan Focus Award and went on to work as a production designer (using her architectural skills) on almost 20 films, including Three Kings and Vanilla Sky. She had the idea for a screenplay after watching the transition her partners 13yr old daughter (Nikki Reed) was going through. After discovering that Nikki shared her passion for film, they decided to put the script into action. The two wrote the first draft of the screenplay over 6 days, and Catherine then went out to find a producer. The movie, Thirteen, was filmed, with Catherine as the director, fulfilling a long time dream. She went on to win several awards for her directorial debut, including the Directors Award at the Sundance Film Festival. She has since gone on to direct Lords of Dogtown and The Nativity Story.

What perhaps helped these women excel was their passion for film. And while all 3 women were ambitious and talented, their passion enabled them to focus on the job at hand rather than being influenced by self-doubt, and any discrimination they may have faced.

Perhaps gender discrimination does not play a major part in women’s roles in Hollywood, but perhaps women simply do not have the drive or belief to succeed. Although it is hard to conclude definitively what makes one woman succeed over another, the overwhelming evidence seems to support the fact that education does not guarantee success. In fact, just the opposite seems to be the case that passion and belief in one self can take anyone, man or woman, to the top of their field.