Gender Inequality in the Film Industry: How Female Employees are being Treated Less

In the history of Cannes, only one woman has even won the most prestigious award for directing. Kathryn Bigelow won the award for her work in the film, Hurt Locker released in 2009 (Quick, 2018). Her win signifies the fact that women can be involved in filmmaking and excel for it. However, there has done little to involve more women in the process of filmmaking. Women are still being hired to play stereotypical roles. They had roles acting as weak character who are always seeking help and had useless roles in the movie. Actresses had fewer opportunities to have the main roles in the movies. A few of the recently released films such Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Wonder Woman (2017), have women for the lead character. The success of these films signified hope for the industry in levelling the field for the two sexes and changed its perception in giving the women the lead roles. However gender equality in film industries is still not fair yet. Not only Hollywood has this problem that discriminates female employees. Another country, Korea, also has a problem with female employee discrimination in its film industries. In the Korean movie industry, actresses must be beautiful and have good looks to succeed in the movie. On the other hand, male actors do not have to be handsome and young. Korean film industry sometimes make men-oriented movies wherein almost all characters are men. Some movie industries’ employers believe that the movie with the female main role will not succeed, so gender equality unfairly keeps the male dominant system (원정, 2018). Female employees who work for movie industries have been discriminated against in multiple ways. In simple terms, gender inequality is about having a system such as the film industry to favor one gender over the other on multiple aspects such as opportunity and pay.There are three manifestations of gender inequality in the film industry that are most problematic. The pay gaps are extremely different between men and women actors, many movie industries’ employers prefer to hire male employees than female employees, and usually, female employees are sexually harassed.

Firstly, the difference in wage gaps between men and women easily notice gender discrimination. The pay is a huge distinction from female actors and male actors (Perrone, 2018). In this modern world, the difference between male and female salaries is still a big problem because the structure of the movie market itself is cited as the biggest reason for the wage gap in the movie industry. There is even an unwritten rule that says a movie in which a female actor plays the main role is not a box office hit. As a result, demand for leading female actors has dwindled, which has naturally led to a drop in their a famous. It is difficult for female actors to take the lead in the negotiations over the fees, as most Hollywood films are male-dominated (Quick, 2018). For that reason, even though female actresses are famous, they cannot earn money as much as male actors. For example, the highest-paid male actor, Mark Wahlberg, made $68 million, while the highest-paid female actor, Emma Stone, made only $26 million in 2017 (Perrone, 2018). Only three actresses made more than $20 million in 2017, while 16 actors penetrated the mark (Perrone, 2018). Currently, there are still many differences in unfairly gap salaries between men and women in 2019 (Dixon, 2019).

Secondly, many movies rely on male employees than female employees (Quick, 2018). Female directors’ representation in the movie industry keeps getting worse, and it remains overwhelmingly male-dominated in the movie industry (Michallon, 2018). In the study, 92 percent of the top 250 films had no women directors, a staggering 96 percent had no women cinematographers, and 73 percent had no female writers. Also, movie employers did not employ 74 percent of any women editors those movies and 42 percent of female executive producers (Michallon, 2018). The cited data in the report from Europe shows that only 1 in 5 films is directed by a woman and only 16% of the funding goes to films directed by women (Gender equality, 2019). This study shows how it highly discriminates against female employees in the movie industry.

Finally, female employees, actresses, directors, writers, are suffering from sexual harassment. In the survey, almost 94% of actresses, female writers, directors, producers, and editors in the Hollywood entertainment industry answered that they have experienced sexual harassment at least once (Pulver, 2018). Types of sexual harassment and sexual violence include unsolicited sexual jokes and gestures (87%), watching others experiencing unpleasant sexual references (75%), sexual contact (69%), sexual access from employers and supervisors (65%), sexual behavior or sexual relations proposals (64%), exposure of unsent sexual photos (39%) and physical exposure (29%). Also, among the respondents were calls for compulsory sex (21%) and unexpected exposure orders (10%) at audition sites. One out of four people was found to have been forced into sexual behavior and informed others of it. 28 percent said their working conditions improved after revealing sexual harassment (Pulver, 2018). The famous incident is Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations in 2017. Harvey Weinstein sexually abused more than 50 female employees in Hollywood (Davis & Khomami, 2018). Even famous actress, Angelina Jolie, was sexually harassed by him in 1998. She said that it triggers her that Harvey sexually harassed her, so she did not make the movie with him, and she did not work with him. Many victims did the MeToo movement to reveal what he has done to female employees in Hollywood. When his done was revealed by the New York Times, he showed an irresponsible attitude toward his victims, and he said “It was just a play. In the 60s and 70s, every man had done like me. If you were offended by my behavior, I will apologize.” He was charged with multiple rapes in 2018. After 1 year, he reached a $ 44milion deal to settle lawsuits by women who accused him of sexual misconduct (Barnes & Ransom, 2019).

In conclusion, female directors and actresses receive better treatment than in the old days. As of 2018, women regarded 37 percent of major characters and 34 percent of women speaking characters increased, up from 32 percent in 2016. On the other hand, female film employees are discriminated against by the male-dominant system in the movie industry. Female and male actors have a dramatically huge difference in pay, the film industry employers do not rely on female employees than male employees, and female employees are exposed to the danger of sexual harassment. Many female characters showed passive emotion that is the sadness and the fear, and male characters showed active emotion that is the rage and the hatred. Besides, 79 percent of actresses are younger than male actors. Those things can impress people to women who should be young and beautiful. Movies can affect people’s thoughts. Thus, it keeps the system of discrimination. However, it could be a good chance to change people’s thoughts. Many teenager girls are learning archery after watching The Hunger Games, and Brave. Many teenager boys started to learn ballet after watching Billy Eliot. If we want to change the discrimination between men and women, we should change the system of male-dominated in the film industry. Many people should hire female employees and make not sexist movies to change gender equality, but gender inequality in the industry will only become more extreme without the revolutionary gender-equality policy.