Well, the numbers are in!
The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University has surveyed the 250 top-grossing films from 1998 to 2014. They looked at the the percentage of female producers, directors, editors, writers, and cinematographers. And what did they find?
In the last 16 years, women have made absolutely no gains.
None! Zero. Nada.
In fact, in 2014, women held only 17% of all of the most important behind-the-scenes positions in Hollywood — the same percentage they occupied in 1998.
Let’s break that down, shall we?
This past year…
…of the top 250 highest-grossing films were women.
…were women.
I’m sensing a pattern.
Dear Lord. Make it stop.
Aggggghh. Why? Why? Why?
So yeah, pretty depressing. Infuriating, even. The kind of thing that might make you feel sad and mad and frustrated and hopeless.
But don’t despair! There’s a silver lining!
Don’t know why, but I’m sensing a little to a lot of sarcasm.
FACT CHECK TIME! So yeah, the statistics in the video aren’t exactly 100% accurate. As the SDSU study shows, men actually comprised 93% of all directors, 95% of cinematographers, and 89% of all writers. But … close enough for a comedy video, I’d say. And mostly it’s actually worse than he claims. Hooray?
