Gender Inequality In Workplace
(Film Industry)
“Celluloid Ceiling”
There is a metaphor used to describe the barriers of workplace advancement between women and minorities, people called it “glass ceiling”. In the film industry, glass barriers and pervasive stereotypes of women still persist and this is called “celluloid 
ceiling” in Hollywood.
An American film director, Ava DuVernay giving a strong women speech about gender inequality of the film industry, she mentioned about the senior movie studio execs are 93 per cent male, and only 4 per cent of studio films are directed by women, it is quite a big number of difference between the gender. She also had mentions has so many women went to Sundance 2012 and see the top 100 grossing films. Including all the combinations, teams, there were 109 people who directed to that top 100 grossing films. 107 were men, only two were women which is she and Angelina Jolie. There are so many women who did equal work as Ava, but not all of them can get into that Sundance class.
Hollywood is definitely a largely male-dominated industry. Some people may think there is a shortage of talented, creative women who interested in the film industry. But in fact, the number of females who enrol at the top film schools with males is almost the same. An LA Weekly article mentioned that there is 51 per cent of graduate students at the NYU Tisch School of Arts and 46 per cent who graduate at USC School of Cinematic Arts are females.
In reality, almost all of the majority studio heads were white males, and the same was true for senior management. The males get the power to lead the industry so does the women are very hard to get off these barriers to advancement opportunities because these barriers never go away.
“Unequal Pay for Equal Work”
It is not big news for people to hear about who works in the film/entertainment industry facing the gender pay gap. Many artists have spoken out about the persistent of the gender pay gap: Jennifer Lawrence, Patricia Arquette, Jessica Chastain, Kerry Washington, Emma Watson, Beyonce etc.
“This is what men don’t think about when they negotiate their salary”
– Jennifer Lawrence“I’m sure they were commended for being fierce and tactical, while I was busy worrying about coming across as a brat and not getting my fair share.”
– Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer also wrote an article online to mentioned that she didn’t mean to speak out to the public about the salary problem until she saw the payroll of the artist that she work with on the Internet and she realised every man was higher than her even though she works with the equal workload. She also heard about some male actor like Jeremy Renner and Bradley Cooper all fought and succeeded in negotiation to powerful deals for themselves and earn 9 per cent for their salary. But Jennifer or even Amy Adams, who have more Academy Award nominations than other male actors, only earn 7 per cent.
Here is the interview with Jennifer Lawrence about her opinions on the pay gap:
It is very unfair for the female in the workplace and we know all industry probably have the same gender inequality problem. I only mentioned a few examples above, but there is still a lot of problem in real life besides the unequal payment and opportunity. It is a right for women, they deserve to have an opportunity and equal earn or equal treatment. Being women doesn’t mean that they are no talent or different from the male, women also have creativity or even leadership.
It is a different generation that people are equal now, women can speak out what they want and stop those inequalities. Even though only a few portions of female artist are brave enough or have the power to spoke out, they still try their best to help the rest of the women to earn their right.
Hope that the inequality problem can truthy faced and have equal treatment in all the industry, not just only in film or entertainment industry.
Reference
- Chernikoff, L. (2017, October 09). Why Ava Duvernay Hates the Word Diversity. Retrieved from https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a31310/ava-duvernay-diversity-and-self-care/
- Ogilvie, J. P. (2017, November 16). How Hollywood Keeps Out Women. Retrieved from https://www.laweekly.com/news/how-hollywood-keeps-out-women-5525034
- Paquette, D. (2015, October 13). Jennifer Lawrence: This is what men don’t think about when they negotiate their salary. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/13/why-jennifer-lawrence-is-sick-of-acting-adorable-at-work/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.dcda65245af1
- Lawrence, J. (n.d.). Jennifer Lawrence: Why Do These Dudes Make More Than Me? Retrieved from https://us11.campaign-archive.com/?u=a5b04a26aae05a24bc4efb63e&id=64e6f35176&e=fe292e1416
- ABC News (2015, November 12). Jennifer Lawrence Discusses Hollywood’s Gender Pay Gap. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA2MhigYsRw
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