One of the positive efforts the Director’s Guild of America makes for its women and ethnic minority director members is to annually publish a list of the episodic TV shows with the “WORST” and “BEST” records of hiring women and ethnic minority directors.

There are two lists for “WORST OF” shows: 1) shows that hired NO women or ethnic minorities at all, and 2) shows that hired women and minorities to direct fewer than 15% of their episodes.

Then, there is a “BEST OF” list!  This list highlights the shows that hired women and ethnic minorities on more than 30% of the episodes for the season.  Those are the shows we want to support.

But we were JUST CURIOUS…

Women are not minorities, we make up 51% of the population.  Some of us don’t believe that, just because we are discriminated against in our industry (resulting in our skewed ratio of membership within our Guild), we should be considered “minorities,” even though we women are comprised of a great and marvelous blend of ethnicities.

So, we wondered what the DGA “BEST OF” list would look like if WE TOOK OUT THE MEN!  Below are the results:

(The whole DGA 2011/2012 Diversity Report is available here: http://www.dga.org/News/PressReleases/2012/092712-DGA-Report-Assesses-Director-Diversity-in-Hiring-Practices.aspx)

DGA “BEST OF” LIST – RECALCULATED BY OUR TEAM:

Alphas (Open 4 Business Productions/SyFy) – DGA “Best of” – 30% - 24 episodes, 4 episodes directed by 3 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS - 16.6%

Austin & Ally (It’s a Laugh Productions/Disney Channel) – DGA “Best of” – 33% - 32 episodes, ZERO episodes directed by women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 0%

Awkward (On Site Productions/MTV) – DGA “Best of” – 50% – 29 episodes, 10 episodes directed by 3 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 34%

Body of Proof  - (FTP Productions/ABC) – DGA “Best of” – 31% - 39 episodes, 9 episodes directed by 2 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 23%

Boss - (Boss Kane Productions/Starz!) – DGA “Best of” – 38% – 18 episodes, one directed by a woman – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 6%

Covert Affairs – (Open 4 Business Productions/USA) – DGA “Best of” – 43% - 42 episodes, 5 episodes directed by 4 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 12%

Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 – (Twentieth Century Fox Television/ABC) – DGA “Best of” – 42% - 20 episodes, 6 episodes directed by 4 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 30%

Drop Dead Diva - (Woodridge Productions/Lifetime) – DGA “Best of” – 54% - 14 episodes directed by 5 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 36%

Fairly Legal – (Open 4 Business Productions/USA) –  DGA “Best of” – 33% - 23 episodes, 3 directed by 3 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS - 13%

Franklin & Bash – (Woodridge Productions/TNT) – DGA “Best of” – 30% - 20 episodes, 2 episodes directed by 1 woman – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 10%

Grimm - (Open 4 Business Productions/NBC) – DGA “Best of” – 48% - 42 episodes, 8 episodes directed by 4 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 19%

Jessie – (It’s a Laugh Productions/Disney Channel) – DGA “Best of” – 58% – 43 episodes, 3 episodes directed by 2 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 7%

Lab Rats - (It’s a Laugh Productions/Disney XD) – DGA “Best of” – 80% - 27 episodes, ZERO episodes directed by women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS - 0%

Let’s Stay Together - (Breakdown Productions/BET) – DGA “Best of” – 100% - 42 episodes, 9 episodes directed by 4 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 21%

Pair of Kings – (It’s a Laugh Productions/Disney XD) – DGA “Best of” – 62% – 67 episodes, 11 directed by one women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 16%

Reed Between the Lines - (Breakdown Productions/BET) – DGA “Best of” – 100%  – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS - 28%

Scandal - (FTP Productions/ABC/Shonda Rhimes) – DGA “Best of” – 67% - 29 episodes, 6 directed by 4 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 21%

Single Ladies - (Bling Productions/VH1) – DGA “Best of” – 100% - 25 episodes – 19 episodes directed by 3 women directors – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS - 76%

Suburgatory – (Bonanza Productions/ABC) – DGA “Best of” – 38% - 44 episodes, 7 episodes directed by 5 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 16%

Suits - (Open 4 Business Productions/USA) – DGA “Best of” – 64% - 28 episodes, 5 episodes directed by 4 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 18%

The Game – (Breakdown Productions/BET) – DGA “Best of” – 100% - 106 episodes, 10 episodes by 3 women directors – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 9%

The Middle – (Warner Bros. Television/ABC) – DGA “Best of” – 46% – 96 episodes, 41 episodes directed by 5 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 43%

The Walking Dead – (Stalwart Films/AMC) – DGA “Best of” – 53% – 35 episodes – 4 directed by 4 women (pilot co-directed with a male director) – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 11%

Torchwood: Miracle Day - (Bad Wolf Productions/Starz!) – DGA “Best of” – 30% – 10 episodes directed by women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 20%

Treme – (Home Box Office/HBO) – DGA “Best of” 60% - 31 episodes, 6 episodes directed by 3 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 19%

Warehouse 13 – Universal Network Television/SyFy) – DGA “Best of” – 38% – 50 episodes, 9 episodes directed by 2 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 18%

30 Rock (NBC Studios/NBC) – DGA “Best of” – 36% - 138 episodes, 41 episodes directed by 6 women – PERCENT OF WOMEN DIRECTORS – 30%

Note: Our calculations are based on our own analyses made from Wikipedia breakdowns of episodic TV shows.  It is a work-in-progress. Please report errors or omissions.

By Maria Giese

The first thing I did this morning was put a call in to Hillary Clinton. I had to get the truth about something really shocking…

Hillary: politician, diplomat, New York Senator, 67th U.S. Secretary of State, First Lady. And she attended my alma mater—Wellesley College, a few decades before me. I love and admire Hillary Rodham Clinton. I think she is the best living role model for women and girls in our nation today. As one of America’s few women feature film directors, I had often contemplated directing a film about her early career.

Close your eyes. Imagine…

FADE UP: Brilliant, smoking hot, super-lawyer, Hillary Rodham, fresh out of Yale, at the crossroads of her life. Should she head to Washington DC to take her place in history as America’s first woman president? Or stay in Little Rock, Arkansas, and marry a cute (very), small town lawyer, soon to take her inevitable place in history as America’s first woman president?

“RODHAM.”

A sure-fire box office hit. So, you can imagine how I felt yesterday when I found out that some MALE director, with a grin like a Cheshire cat (okay, a really good director), had nabbed the script “Rodham” from the “Black List,” Hollywood’s vault of best, unproduced screenplays– this one penned by Young-Il Kim.

C’mon! A man should NOT direct the first biopic about Hillary Clinton!

And worse, the producers of the film, Wick Godfrey and Mary Bowen, make up the team so famous for firing Catherine Hardwicke after her visionary helming of “Twilight” had turned a schlocky vampire book into a billion dollar global media franchise. They also produce “Revenge,” an episodic TV show about a women seeking– well, revenge. How many women directors have they hired? Out of a total of 44 episodes: just five episodes by women directors!

Then, Isaac Klausner is overseeing the project for Temple Hill. Klausner is the associate producer on the Twilight films. These boys must feel very proud of their success with female-driven content, directed almost exclusively by men. Okay, look. You can yell at me for naming names if you want, but we women directors have had it.

And Hillary needs to tell us if she’s okay with this.

In seven years, we American women will celebrate 100 years of VERY HARD WON suffrage. We make up 51% of the population. We control 2 trillion dollars of American purchasing power and 85% of household purchases.

And even though we women grow up being told by EVERYONE that we can do anything we want– even become the president of the United States… Even though we enter our nation’s film schools at a 50-50 ratio with men, and graduate 50-50 with them…

…we step through the gates of Hollywood and walk onto a playing field that is at an almost vertical male-dominated TILT against women.

Nearly all of American media is directed by men: that’s over 95% of features and over 85% of episodic TV shows. It might sound like simple discrimination, but it’s more than that. It’s tantamount to censorship– the silencing of the voices of over half the population of our country.

This silencing of women in media is not only patently unfair, it’s illegal. The U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, protects equal employment opportunity for all Americans. American studios and networks are breaking the law– and they have been for decades.

The American entertainment industry– which produces our nation’s most influential global export– media– is sending a powerful message to women and girls around the globe: that equality for women is not important to Americans.

Hillary! HILLARY! Is that what you want to do? We American women directors are waiting for your call back.

By Maria Giese

Women make up 51% of the population in America. We are not a minority.

Media is America’s most influential global export, changing people’s lives around the world. But almost 100% of American media content is directed by men.

Women graduate from film schools 50/50. Ninety-five percent of feature films are directed by men. It’s an almost vertical, male-dominated playing field for American women directors. That’s not fair and it’s not legal.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title 7, protects equal employment opportunity for all Americans. Women directors are discriminated against; American studios and networks are breaking the law.

American women got the right to vote in 1920; that’s 93 years ago.
In seven years, America will celebrate 100 years of Women’s Suffrage!

But women’s voices are silenced where it counts most: in the ways America speaks to the world. American moral leadership in the world means America must obey its own laws first.

Most of American industries are calling for equal employment opportunities for women–
50/50 in 2020. WHY NOT HOLLYWOOD?

Support “Women Directors: Navigating The Boys’ Club”
www.womendirectorsinhollywood.com

2013 DGA WOMEN DIRECTORS SUMMIT

SUMMARY & NOTES

Edited by Maria Giese

INTRODUCTION:

The day included opening remarks by Academy Award-winner and advocate, Geena Davis, who connected the need for the global proliferation of more positive images of women and girls to the immediacy of getting more women behind the camera here in Hollywood. Currently, according to the latest stats from the DGA, women only helm 5% of feature films and 15% of episodic TV shows.

Victoria Hochberg, who introduced Geena Davis set the tone for the day with a speech about the history of the DGA Women’s Committee and the need for courage and principles in the face of an industry that often does not honor the civil rights laws of our nation.  (Hochberg was one of the six who started the DGA Women’s Committee in 1979).  She reminded us of our history, spoke the difficulties involved in attaining the employment data.  In 1979 women made up one half of one percent of employed DGA directors. She spoke of getting the DGA to file a class-action lawsuit against three major studios in 1983.

DGA WSC SUMMIT – SCRIBES’ NOTES

OPENING:  Geena Davis: The number of Women in front of the camera stagnates at 17%.  Davis is about to initiate the first Global Women in Media Study.  If the number of women in film and TV continues to rise at the rate it’s going, we will have parity in 500 years.  In family films, there is one female character for every three male characters.  Even in crowd scenes, women make up just 17%.  In films, the ratio of female key film production positions has been exactly the same since 1949.

Geena Davis: The most powerful agents of change are the women in this room.  We must feel the “Fierce urgency of the now” (Martin Luther King).

________________________________________________________________________

PANEL ONE: “Employment Equity Matters,” moderated by Martha Coolidge (director of 46 titles and the first and only female president of the DGA), included successful feature directors: Debbie Allen, Catherine Hardwicke, Amy Heckerling, Mimi Leder, Nancy Meyers, Robin Swicord, Betty Thomas, and Nia Vardalos.

Top women feature directors suffer discrimination as well.  It is our responsibility to speak out. “This mono-culture we’re living in is someone else’s point of view” – Robin Swicord.

We should help start a studio for women-focused films.  Producer/agent “Directors Lists” are mostly/exclusively male directors.

Debbie Allen:  “It’s action, not sitting in a room and talking. We need ACTION, ACTION, ACTION!”

Nancy Meyers: We need to support women execs.

Nia Vardalos: “Use our economic power.  Boycotts.”  

Mimi Leder: “Start an all-women studio.”

Debbie Allen suggests “…holding out, starting a movement, a revolution.”

Robin Swicord suggests we “…hire an attorney to go to court; a Federally protected civil rights case.  The DGA has the power and resources sitting right here.” 

Betty Thomas: “Stand up!”

Martha Coolidge asks: “What can we aim for to make the equity a reality?”

Mimi Leder: Aim to start a studio for women.

Amy Heckerling: For women to support women.

Debbie Allen: Create a committee for a movement.  Must have a concept, title, be viral, use economic power, inspire, and respect action.

Catherine Hardwicke: Celebrate & encourage people who do hire women.

Martha Coolidge: Utilize the internet to do our own publicity/promotion.

Nancy Meyers: Embrace all women executives at studios and meet w/studios.  Make noise wherever you can.

Robin Swicord: Employment access is a federally protected civil right.  Involve US labor bureau and hire a lawyer.  Approach the problem legally.

Audience Comments: “Never waste a connection– enlist men in the movement!”  “Recreate this SUMMIT event for general DGA population.”  “Work it like a war– military style.”

________________________________________________________________________

PANEL TWO: “Making the Choice for Change”

This panel was moderated by Penelope Spheeris.  It was a look into the future for women, envisioning a “paradigm shift” brought dynamic concepts for realizing equality for women directors from panelists Valerie Faris, Victoria Hochberg, Mary Lambert, Lynne Littman, Freida Mock, Kimberly Peirce as well as guests Keri Putnam (Sundance), Jennifer Siebel Newsom (Miss Representation), and Cathy Schulman (Women in Film).

Cathy Schulman:  Discrimination against women in our industry is tantamount to an economic rejection of women.

Penelope Spheeris: We need a “Rosa Parks” character to rally around.

Victoria Hochberg: We women must work together, internal fractiousness weakens women as a whole.

Lynne Littman:  “DGA Working in the Trade requirement is patently unfair to women.”

Valerie Faris: Women directors get more respect when directing with a male co-director.

Kimberly Peirce: Discrimination is worse in Hollywood than anywhere else in her experience.

Mary Lambert:  We need to think in terms of legislation.

Other Suggestions:  Have another Summit (just like this), but in Theatre 1 (much bigger).  Get more DGA men involved in our plight.  Get the power of the DGA behind us.  Make sure studios have master lists of women directors.  We need to be activists—take a stand.  DGA programs to help women across categories.  A director’s programs that emulates the AD Training Program. More DGA studio mentorships.  “We need to live like no help is coming.”  We need a business plan.  We need to litigate at the same time.

Keri Putnam: There has been no progress since 1998.  Compare gender at levels of success–there is greater parity in school, docs, as economic stakes rise less gender parity.  It’s an economic rejection of women.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom: Miss Representation, now in 38 countries, had 450 funders through crowd funding. It takes a village and there is strength in numbers.  We must remember our consumer power.

Victoria Hochberg:  WSC history.  (Under-employment of women directors) must be a leading issue in negotiations.  There has to be tension and a little bit of a threat behind it.  Business is not “polite.”

Kimberly Peirce: Attack hiring within the agency system – make “the list” more public and open.

Frieda Mock: Be strategic.

Valerie Faris:  Get the entire DGA behind this.  Look to men for demonstration of how women should be respected.  Gather statistics that show the competency of women.  Focus on the business aspects.  Convert “exceptions” into the norms.

Mary Lambert:  Change the paradigm.  There must be broad, sweeping social change.  Think in terms of legislation.

Audience Comments: We should establish a Publicity & Marketing Committee similar to the one at the WGA to promote women-directed films.

_____________________________________________________________________

PANEL THREE: “Creating Opportunities for Women in Film & TV”

This panel was moderated by BET’s Loretha Jones. The panelists included showrunners, producers and directors, Paris Barclay, Lesli Linka Glatter, Matt Weiner, Susan Cartsonis, Betsy Thomas, Callie Khouri, and Lillah McCarthy. This group of seasoned producers is among the executives most dedicated to helping create opportunities for women directors in episodic TV.

Paris Barclay substantiates the low numbers of women directors by pointing to statistics: DGA has around 15,000 members; there are 1158 female director members;  13.48% of the DGA are women directors. Of 3,100 episodes in 2012, 15% were directed by women, which is higher than the percentage of women directors in the guild.  He suggests that from that perspective the studios can argue that they’re actually doing pretty well in terms of making “Good Faith Efforts” to hire more women.

Matthew Weiner concedes there is an institutional bias against women directors.  He predicts next generation will see improvement.  He suggests seeking directing jobs from within, for example getting work on TV shows as a script supervisor with an eye to directing at some later point.

Lillah McCarthy:  We need more women Showrunners.  Women need to empower themselves/hire themselves.

Paris Barclay: Women need advocates to “sell” them.

Susan Cartsonis: Women’s issues not taken seriously in the studio system.  All agree “Shame Campaign” works on producers/showrunners.

Audience Question:  Do producers and/or showrunners in the industry feel any responsibility to comply with BA Article 15, FLTTA Article 19?  Does Hollywood have a responsibility to act under the jurisdiction of US equal employment laws?

Paris Barclay responds:  Producers need on make “Good Faith Efforts” to show they are trying.  The fact that the number of employed women TV directors is higher than the percentage of women directors in the Guild is an indicator that their “Good Faith Efforts” are functioning.

Lillah McCarthy says producers can hire from the cast/crew.  It’s subjective, merit-based—whatever works best for the show.

 ________________________________________________________________________

LUNCHTIME ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS:

These lunchtime discussions involved women directors brainstorming solutions for increasing employment for women directors based on a list of questions prepared by the organizers of the Summit.

These sessions were successful in unifying the 150 directors present.  The participants were full of ideas, strong in voicing their opinions, and generous in their desire to work toward employment equity for women directors.  Women are put in positions in which we must compete against one another for scant few jobs in an industry that discriminates against them.

Of the many ideas that emerged (including having women directors march wearing Burkas), perhaps the most significant proposals of the day were 1) hiring a lawyer to take legal action, 2) hiring a publicist to draw media attention to the problem, and 3) making an appeal to the newly appointed DGA Feature Film and Television Negotiations Committee co-chairs, Michael Apted and Thomas Schlamme, and their team (including Stephen Soderbergh and Jonathan Mostow).  It was suggested that DGA women encourage them to make equal employment for women DGA members the central issue of the 2013 DGA negotiations.

COMBINED SCRIBES’ NOTES ON ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS:

(15 Tables, 10 Participants at Each Table)

1. How do we make the DGA care about equity for women in the DGA?
2. How do we incorporate the press into our effort?  Get a publicist.
3. Hire a labor lawyer, someone who women are going to love – Jay Roth?
4. Demand more from the Guild to enforce compliance of DGA studio agreements to hire more women (BA Article 15 & FLTTA Article 19).  Get staff members positioned to enforce these agreements.  Hit the studios HARD with fines for being out of compliance.
5. Petition Michael Apted, Thomas Schlamme, Steven Soderberg and Jonathan Mostow to make employment equity the primary focus of the 2013 DGA negotiations.
6. Introduce a regular segment into the DGA Quarterly magazine discussing parity for women.  Do the same on the official DGA website.
7. Celebrate shows that hire women directors.  Start a “Thank You” letter writing campaign to personally thank any network, producer, showrunner, etc, who hires a woman director.8. 2020 is the 100th Year Centennial of Women’s Suffrage.  Start a 50/50 in 2020 Women Directors Campaign.  If women are 50% of the population, why do we make up only 5% or 15% of the directors?

   9. Create a short film and other media-oriented pieces that illustrate the number of productions that were directed by men versus the number that were directed by women.  Give a visual example of how disproportionate it really is.

   10. Communicate to women in America.  Use our collective power to boycott or reward companies depending on their level of support of women.

   11. Ask your agent for studio/producer “Directors Lists” when they say there are no women on them. Take action on the “Directors Lists.”  Add women to all lists.

   12. Affirmative Action: Set goals and timetables to hire more women directors.

   13. Unify each of the many women’s entertainment organizations/unions to define our shared concerns and objectives.

   14. Contribute $10 each to go towards the hiring of a lawyer (and/or publicist) to support a media/legal action effort to get more women directors working.

   15. Plan protests.  Promote publicity.  Start a campaign to create a paradigm shift.

   16. Encourage all WSC members to join the WSC Facebook forum.

   17. Examine DGA/Studio agreements designed to make studios hire more women: “Good Faith Efforts” aren’t good enough.

   18. Ask the ACLU to get involved.

   19. The problem must be approached legally through the federal government. Pursue the EEOC to investigate mitigation of industry discrimination against women.

   20. Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title 7 is about hiring. Look into legislature and Federal laws to examine why Hollywood appears to see itself as existing outside the jurisdiction of US Civil Rights Equal Employment laws.

   21. Request a DGA Women’s Contact List.

   22. Request DGA statistics on women’s employment be released.

   23. Create a petition from the WSC to request that our issues be the 2013 priority in negotiation

   24. Start a campaign to encourage all female DGA members to show up at the annual meeting and sit together as a block to show a visual representation of our power, unity, and membership.

   25. Improve communications between DGA women members.

   26. Initiate a Super-Committee outside of the Guild consisting of women members from all industry women’s organizations and guilds.

   27. Write Manifesto for Women Directors.

   28. Look to the men who have daughters, to help promote our cause.

END OF SUMMIT

________________________________________________

 Note: This March 2, 2013 DGA Summit was created & organized by five DGA members: Dianne Bartlow (chair); Rachel Feldman; Maria Giese; Sandra Milliner; Melanie Wagor.

For more information contact: aegisfilms@earthlink.net

By Maria Giese

Written by Maria Giese, published by Melissa Silverstein of  “Women And Hollywood” March 6, 2013

This past Saturday, March 2, 2013, became an historic day as the DGA Women’s Steering Committee hosted the DGA Women of Action Summit in LA bringing together 150 female American directors for a day-long event designed to create solutions to the problem of the under-representation and under-employment of women directors in Hollywood. This event was a long time coming and to me, the day was reminiscent, in terms of unity, passion and commitment to the rallies for women’s rights of the 1970′s.

The day included opening remarks by Academy Award-winner and advocate, Geena Davis, who connected the need for the global proliferation of more positive images of women and girls to the immediacy of getting more women behind the camera here in Hollywood. Currently, according to the latest stats from the DGA, women only helm 5% of feature films and 15% of episodic TV shows.

Victoria Hochberg, who introduced Geena Davis, set the moral tone for the day with a beautifully-crafted speech about the history of the DGA Women’s Committee and the need for courage and principles in the face of an industry that often does not honor the civil rights laws of our nation.  Hochberg was one of the six who started the DGA Women’s Committee in 1979.  She reminded us of our history and spoke the difficulties involved in attaining the employment data.  In 1979, women made up one half of one percent of employed DGA directors. Most interestingly, she revealed how the Women’s Committee succeeded in getting the DGA to file a class-action lawsuit against three major studios in 1983, a piece of history not often shared by the Guild.

The first panel, “Employment Equity Matters,” moderated by Martha Coolidge, director of 46 films and the first and only female president of the DGA, included successful feature directors: Debbie Allen, Catherine Hardwicke, Amy Heckerling, Mimi Leder, Nancy Meyers, Robin Swicord, Betty Thomas, and Nia Vardalos. Each of these mega directors agreed that even the view from the top is dismal. Even in success, America’s top women directors do not enjoy the privileges accorded to their male peers.  Robin Swicord called for participants to recognize that the low number of women directors in Hollywood appears to violate U.S. equal employment laws. Even reluctant attendee Betty Thomas was incredibly moved by the event declaring “I’m ashamed! I’m ashamed! This is great!” And a great cheer arose.

PLEASE CONTINUE READING at http://blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood/guest-post-dga-women-directors-foment-a-rebellion

By Maria Giese

In 1979, there were very few women director members of the Guild— and they weren’t getting much work.  So six distinguished women director members (including recipients of a Peabody, an Oscar, and an Emmy nomination), who could not get hired, decided to ask the Guild how many women were actually getting directing jobs.

Luckily, that year the Guild had computerized their data system, and when the six women asked for and received those files, they pored over them for the next twelve months.  What they learned was disturbing: the employment numbers for women directors was just ½ of 1%. They presented the results of their research to Michael Franklin, then National Executive Secretary of the DGA.  He agreed that something had to be done.

The six directors then formed the Director’s Guild “Women’s Committee.”  The following year, they invited women of all guild categories to join.  During the next two years, from
1981 to 1983, Michael Franklin tried to get the studios and TV production companies to improve the hiring of women DGA members.  The Guild, in conjunction with the Women’s Committee, set up meeting after meeting to encourage production companies to interview women members; they circulated directors’ reels, discussed possible ‘set-asides’ (a specific number of directing slots for women)– all to no avail.

The studios and production companies were intransigent.  After one final attempt, when none of the invited executives showed up for a scheduled meeting, which included coffee and an inordinate number of Danish pastries, Franklin, fed up, made his historic decision. It was time to sue.

That event was dubbed “The Danish Debacle.”

In 1983, Ronald Reagan was president.  The Guild went to work.  It hired a law firm and expanded the suit to include ethnic minorities.  The named defendants were Columbia Pictures, Paramount, and Warner Bros studios.  Almost immediately, other studios and production companies began to find that heretofore unqualified women and minorities were suddenly stellar candidates for jobs; the hiring statistics for women and minorities began to climb.

In the interim, President Reagan had nominated Judge Pamela Rymer to a seat on the United States District Court for the Central District of California.  Though class action suits against police and fire departments, for instance, were common at the time, the film business was, and is, a strange combination of art and commerce.  There are no qualifying tests for directors.  Traits that might define a director are amorphous and subjective.

The Guild itself, through the hiring of assistant directors by directors, was now scrutinized using the same standards that applied to less “creative” professions.  The astonishing and ironic result was that in 1985, Judge Rymer disqualified the DGA from representing its women and minority members class certification on the grounds that some of the Guild’s own policies put it in conflict with the very interests of the women and minority plaintiffs on whose behalf the Guild had filed the lawsuit in the first place.

Judge Rymer’s ruling prohibited the Guild from proceeding with the case, but change had begun.  In the next ten years, employment of female Guild members rose to almost 16%. Regrettably, the change did not last.  In thirty years the industry has grown, and so has the Guild, yet the ratio of working women directors in the DGA has not advanced at the same pace, in fact the numbers have declined.  The numbers are so appalling that they infer violations of our nation’s basic civil rights and equal employment laws.

Is that a problem?

America’s extraordinary influence in the world is due largely to a prolific entertainment industry that provides more media content to the world than any other country.  While media is our most influential export, however, it comes almost exclusively from the perspective of male directors.  The ratios are staggering: according to recent DGA statistics, 95% of feature films are directed by men, and just 5% by women.  Episodic TV is nearly as bad, with the male-to-female ratio of working directors at 85% to 15%.

Why is the gender gap so blatant?  Why have women directors experienced so little progress in so many decades?  Why does gender disparity remain, year after year?

Let’s consider some good news…

In 2009, President Obama passed the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” and in 2013 is making equality for women an important goal of his administration.  Military women have successfully challenged the “Combat Exclusion Rule” against the Department of Defense. Women are playing a pivotal role in American politics, holding more seats in the Senate, Congress, and House than ever before in American history.  This year, thanks to Keri Putnam, Sundance achieved parity for women director participants in feature competition for the first time ever.  And now, in 2013, we women in the Directors Guild of America are pressing for equity.

It is time…

Ending discrimination against women directors is vital to establishing a society of equality and diversity of perspective.  It is of paramount importance that the film and television content we export represents male and female perspectives equally.

If women are not directing film and television content, half of the voices of the American population are silenced and half the visions are suppressed.  It is not just basic fairness and the validity of the female point of view around the world that gives this issue such immediacy.  If we as a nation are to maintain a moral upper hand in geopolitical affairs, we must start by obeying our own laws protecting equality.

U.S. laws are in place for equal employment for women in our industry. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII states:

“It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to (…) sex.”

And the DGA and the studios have several excellent agreements in place.  The DGA Basic Agreement has a section on Diversity— Article 15— a non-discrimination policy which states:

“The parties mutually reaffirm their policy of non-discrimination in the employment or treatment of any Employee because of (…) sex.  The Employer shall make good faith efforts to increase the number of (…) women Directors.”

The DGA and producer signatories also have a very clear agreement documented in “The Freelance Live and Tape Television Agreement” (FLTTA), Article 19.  It reads:

“The parties (DGA & amp; Producer signatories) mutually reaffirm their policy of non-discrimination in the employment or treatment of any Employee because of (…) sex.”

The problem with these agreements is that they are not being effectively complied with by the studios and producer signatories.  The DGA entity charged with acting as the intermediary for the Guild in overseeing studio compliance of these agreements is the “DGA Diversity Task Force.”

Co-chairs and members of the “Diversity Task Force” are appointed by the president of the Guild.  Unless an appointed member happens to be a diversity committee co-chair, they have no direct relationship to the diversity committees, nor are they required to communicate with diversity members in any formalized manner.

The current Guild leadership strongly believes that Guild governance should be comprised only of working directors, but where the Diversity Task Force is concerned, a conflict of interest seems inherent. How can it be in the interest of highly-employed directors to apply pressure to the very studios who employ them to direct their TV shows on a regular basis?  Perhaps a rule should be put in place that the studios may not hire the directors who negotiate with them on behalf of DGA diversity members.

Another problem with studio adherence to DGA-studio agreements is the use of the legal term “Good Faith Efforts” which suggest that the studios will fairly and honestly attempt to hire more women.  In order to make a legal case that the studios are not fulfilling their promise, women would need clear physical and anecdotal evidence to prove a studio’s intentional malice in preventing women from being employed.

“Best Efforts,” on the other hand, is a much more onerous legal term and could do more to ensure that the studios fulfill their agreements to hire more women.  The studios would be weighted with the burden of proof to demonstrate they are indeed making real and significant efforts to hire more women.

A further problem in ameliorating the under-employment of DGA women lies in a disconnect between the Women’s Steering Committee and the Guild.  The Women’s Steering Committee was created to help women members increase their employment opportunities, but there is no functional mechanism to funnel goals or proposals from the Women’s Steering Committee into a higher DGA council.  A mode of official communication between the WSC and the DGA’s higher bodies of governance is simply not in place.

Potentially worsening the situation, this year the DGA National Board and the DGA executive staff requested that each diversity committee accept new by-laws that would deny leadership to any member who does not fulfill the “Working in the Trade” rule, meaning they have not worked 30 days in the past 7 years.

These new by-laws threaten to compromise the committees by moving them away from their original intent and curtailing the members’ freedom of speech, as they create several obstacles to democratic process and fair election policies for leadership. It is very important that we examine the proposed new laws immediately with this concern in mind.  The by-laws are intended to be enacted in April 2013.

What has the DGA been doing to solve the problem?

Over the years, the DGA, in conjunction with the studios, has experimented with a number of diversity programs the hopes of improving employment statistics for women members the Guild.  These programs include networking events, episodic TV shadowing fellowships, mentoring, panels, and education.

The programs are important to the maintenance of reciprocal good will between the DGA and the studios, but they have not yet increased employment opportunities for women DGA members.

So how can an epoch of parity for women directors begin?

Within the European Commission, right now, there is a powerful effort being made to force gender parity within European companies, mandating that a 40% minimum of women be included on corporate boards of directors.  This proposal comes with sanctions and penalties for violations in the case that corporations fail to comply.  If gender balance is of such acute concern on corporate boards, it most certainly should be an issue of immediacy in the American entertainment industry.

The DGA points its finger at the studios and the studios point their fingers at the DGA. Each shifts the blame to the other, and each responds with frustration to the suggestion that nothing is actually being done. While the responsibility of gender parity among directors ultimately falls to America’s film studios and other producing entities that actually do the hiring, the labor organization that must initiate crucial change is the one whose primary responsibility is to represent the rights of its members: the Directors Guild of America.

On February 3, 2013, the DGA reported that Michael Apted and Thomas Schlamme accepted appointments to co-chair the upcoming DGA Feature Film and Television Negotiations Committee.  The core mission of these negotiations is to “protect and extend the creative and economic rights of(DGA) members – directors and members of the directorial teams.” They will be working closely with Creative Rights Committee Co-chairs Steven Soderbergh and Jonathan Mostow.

Now is the time for the women members of the DGA to ask that the underemployment of women directors become a key issue to be addressed in the upcoming 2013 DGA negotiations with the studios. DGA Executive Director, Jay Roth has successfully led negotiations on the Guild’s major collective bargaining agreements six times since becoming National Executive Director in 1995.

The time has come…

…for Mr. Roth and the elected leaders of the DGA: Taylor Hackford, Steven Soderbergh, Michael Apted, and Thomas Schlamme and Jonathan Mostow, together will all other members of the DGA Negotiating Committee and DGA Staff, to get together with key studio executives and level the playing field for women directors.