Is There Gender Bias in The Movie and TV Industries?

On May 11, 2016, the Los Angeles Times reported a story relating to a previous request by the American Civil Liberties Union for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate a pattern and practice of gender bias in the hiring of primarily male film and TV directors, and more recently to include producers, actors studio executives and agents.

The ACLU had referenced a University of Southern California study in which less than 2% of directors of the 2013 and 2014 top-grossing films were women. The LA Times reporter noted there were nearly a combined 50 new films announced for 2018 by Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox in which there was not even a single women director. Certainly, these statistics are quite telling, regardless of your position on the subject.

The challenge for the EEOC, and the filing of a civil law suit against and/or mediation involving this industry is complicated by the fact there are a great number of individuals in the hiring process, such as the Directors Guild of America, producers, agents, managers and studio executives.