WOMEN in FILM

WOMEN in FILM First Lady Florence Harding operates a film camera on the White House lawn. The First Lady’s engagement with film offered a sense of credibility to the industry. It also shows how popular film had become by the 1920s and how women remained involved in and out of the film studios. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-132073. Women have been central to the film industry since its inception in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From Nickelodeons to full-length feature films and from silent films to talkies, as writers, directors, actors, and audience members, women have influenced the trajectory of the film industry. Female stardom was an essential component of the rise of the industry, though many of these women were celebrated more for their appearances than for their acting ability. While the popularity of certain female stars offered them legendary status, the kinds of roles they were asked to play often reinforced traditional gender roles. However, women actually played a powerful role in shaping the early film industry. As both consumers of film and professionals in the field, both in front of and behind the camera, women dramatically affected the development of film. Women behind the camera: Women as directors Prior to the 1930s, Hollywood provided many opportunities for women to work on films behind-the- scenes. Many studios had prominent female directors, and female screenwriters created some of the most popular movies of the period, while female film editors exercised creative control over the visual appearance of film. A few women even headed their own studios. Though these women earned their jobs through their creative talents and shrewd business sense, their presence behind-the-scenes helped legitimise film as an art form and as morally acceptable for audiences. Alice Guy Blache directing her cast in 1915. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-02978. Like men, most female directors started their careers in other areas of the film industry before making their directorial debut. Alice Guy Blaché began as a secretary and rose to studio head. She is credited as being the first female film director, and also was known for experimenting with film technique and narrative form. She began her career in France at Gaumont Film Company, owned by Léon Gaumont, and directed her first film in 1896, where she directed all the films made by the studio until 1905. She continued to work for Gaumont until 1907, when she married Herbet Blaché. After following him to the United States in 1910, she founded the Solax Company. As its president, she both directed and supervised production of the company’s films. In 1913 the company closed down, but Blaché continued to direct for her husband until 1922, when she returned to France with her children after her marriage failed. Though her career as a director faded, she is still remembered not only for being a pioneering woman in film, but for helping to shape the early film industry. Alice Guy Blaché also mentored Lois Weber, one of the most famous female American directors. Weber got her start under Blaché at Gaumont in 1908. Although Blaché initially hired her as an actress, Weber’s talent allowed her to develop a career behind the screen, as well as in front of the camera. Along with acting, she “wrote scenarios and subtitles, acted, directed, designed sets and costumes, edited, and even developed negatives for her films.”8 Along with her husband, Weber was also one of the first directors to experiment with sound. Weber is also remembered for her skilful use of film to convey social messages. Weber’s 1914 Hypocrites, for example, used a nude statue to represent “the naked truth”—and she accepted the criticism she knew she would face because of this nudity. Much more daringly, Weber made a film about birth control, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, in 1917. Women on Screen: The Rise of Female Stars Florence Turner was the first actor in the film industry to sign a studio contract. Photoplay Magazine, 1920. Just as women helped shape early Hollywood from behind the scenes, actresses played a crucial role in the development of early film and the Hollywood star and studio systems. More popular than their male counterparts, early female stars helped make Hollywood a booming commercial venture thanks to their intense popularity with audiences. Female actresses parlayed this popularity into greater control of their acting roles, as well as what happened behind the scenes. Before the advent of the Hays Code in 1934, they also sought out challenging and dynamic roles that gave women agency and challenged accepted norms just as often as they conformed to what might be viewed as proper feminine roles. As a result, early Hollywood had a dynamic where actresses had room to explore the many different ways women might be depicted on film. Following the advent of the Hays Production Code, roles that provided women agency on screen became few and far between, a legacy of which Hollywood still struggles with today. The first actress to sign a contract with a studio was Florence Turner, who signed with Vitagraph in 1907. This began the system in which actors signed prolonged contracts with studios that guaranteed a certain amount of pay and sometimes a certain number of films per year. During the early stages of the film industry, actors’ names were not publicised. Though actors did want to protect their privacy, casting anonymous actors ostensibly kept them from gaining enough fame to give them the power to demand higher wages and more control over their films. At first, actresses and actors who took recurring roles in serials or films made by the same production company adopted the monikers of their studios. Movie posters billed them under names such as the “Biograph Girl.” As movies became more popular, however, film audiences began to constantly seek the names of their favourite actors, leading studio executives to realise that profits could be increased by promoting certain stars. Mary Pickford and Frances Marion. By the early 1930s, American culture and the film industry were inextricably linked. While most industries struggled during the Great Depression, Hollywood continued to boom as people turned to movies to escape from the hardships of their lives into the imaginary worlds of beautiful people, slapstick comedy, and happy endings. Women would continue to be at the centre of this story; new stars, like Katharine Hepburn, would emerge to once again change the feminine ideal, and women of colour would continue to overcome racial stereotypes and the limited roles available to them. Just like today, the film industry during the first part of the 20th century was responsible for reinforcing patriarchal norms; with men occupying most of the positions as directors and producers, female actresses were often cast in roles and publicised in ways that led them to become the objects of the male gaze. And yet, women were very much at the centre of the evolution of the industry. The growing independence of white middle class women and their increasing power as consumers, for example, profoundly influenced the direction of the film industry. The celebrity achieved by many of the leading ladies opened up a new opportunity for women to be front-and-centre and acknowledged not only for their looks but also for their work as actors. Furthermore, women like Lois Weber and Anita Loos found ways to rise to the top of this male-dominated world and led in ways that had previously been virtually impossible for women. Progress is gradual, and while Hollywood still faces many injustices—leading men are still paid more than leading women, actresses continue to be judged and revered on the basis of their looks, and there are still more men than women behind the camera—women have been and continue to be involved in all aspects of the film industry. GLOBAL study The first-ever global study on female characters in popular films, launched in 2014, reveals deep- seated discrimination and pervasive stereotyping of women and girls by the international film industry. The study was commissioned by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, with support from UN Women and The Rockefeller Foundation and conducted by Stacy L. Smith (PhD) and her research team at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. About the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media: Founded by Academy Award®-winning actor Geena Davis, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, at Mt. St. Mary’s College, is the only research-based organization working with media and entertainment companies with cutting-edge research, education and advocacy programmes to dramatically improve how girls and women are reflected in media targeting children 11 and under. For more information, visit: www.seejane.org The investigation analyses popular films across the most profitable countries and territories internationally, including: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, United States, United Kingdom, as well as UK-US collaborations. While women represent half of the world’s population, less than one third of all speaking characters in film are female. Less than a quarter of the fictional on- screen workforce is comprised of women (22.5 per cent). When they are employed, females are largely absent from powerful positions. Women represent less than 15 per cent of business executives, political figures, or science, technology, engineering, and/or math (STEM) employees. “The fact is – women are seriously under-represented across nearly all sectors of society around the globe, not just on-screen, but for the most part we’re simply not aware of the extent.

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