Comment on Women Directed Just 16% of 2024's Top 250 Grossing Movies
plm00@lemmy.ml 6 days agoAudiences want good movies, and often don’t care who writes or directs them. It’d be a mistake to say the reason for the low percentage “is because sexism” on such a multifaceted situation. A quick web search says only about 15% of all filmmakers are women, so this statistic sounds about right. Either not enough women are interested, or not enough get the opportunity.
realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.club 6 days ago
That’s a great point. I thought the initiatives would strive for a 50/50 balance which is why 16% surprises me so much.
plm00@lemmy.ml 6 days ago
I wonder what the ratio is between men who want to become filmmakers and women who want to become filmmakers, and if it’s actually 50/50.
hasnt_seen_goonies@lemmy.world 6 days ago
This is often driven by media portrayal. If young women aren’t seeing women being portrayed as directors in media, they might not make the mental leap to “I want to be a director, and I think it’s possible”. For example, the x files led to women in stem having more confidence in their choice of career (STEM career). geenadavisinstitute.org/…/the-scully-effect-i-wan…
barsoap@lemm.ee 6 days ago
You have an awfully low opinion of women’s agency.
Regarding STEM: Countries with higher gender equality have lower rates of women in STEM. One factor there is that STEM pays well so in less equal societies getting into it gets you independence and security that is not necessary in more equal ones.
Regarding CS in particular, it was found that the type of examples in intro courses has a lot of influence, e.g. you can explain Dijkstra’s algorithm by talking about finding the shortest path a message might take between two people who know each other only via chains of acquaintances, or by having a robot find a path through a maze. Once people are into the field it doesn’t matter any more as they recognise examples as that, mere examples of a more general thing, but the intro classes should address preferences of different populations equally and we don’t have to get into why those preferences exist that’s irrelevant. Just do it.
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 6 days ago
The medical profession used to be totally male-dominated. That didn’t stop women from becoming doctors in droves despite all the discrimination and outright bullying they faced. Now women dominate many of the medical specialities.
I think this is different. I think becoming a film director is simply not a viable career path for 99% of all people who attempt it, regardless of gender. This is very much distinct from both acting and music as careers (there are countless moderately successful small-time actors and musicians but almost no small-time film directors).