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WOMEN in

First Lady Florence Harding operates a film camera on the 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 and how women remained involved in and out of the film studios.

Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-132073.

Women have been central to the since its inception in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From Nickelodeons to full-length feature and from silent films to talkies, as writers, directors, , 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 , provided many opportunities for women to work on films behind-the- scenes. Many studios had prominent female directors, and female 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. , 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 , and also was known for experimenting with film technique and form. She began her career in 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 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 in film, but for helping to shape the early film industry.

Alice Guy Blaché also mentored , 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 was the first in the film industry to sign a studio contract. 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 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 .” 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 .

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 , would emerge to once again change the feminine ideal, and women of colour would continue to overcome racial 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 .

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 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 by the international film industry. The study was commissioned by the 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 .

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, , 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. And media images exert a powerful influence in creating and perpetuating our unconscious biases,” said Geena Davis, Founder & Chair of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

“However, media images can also have a very positive impact on our perceptions. In the time it takes to make a movie, we can change what the future looks like. There are woefully few women CEOs in the world, but there can be lots of them in films. How do we encourage a lot more girls to pursue science, technology and engineering careers? By casting droves of women in STEM, politics, law and other professions today in movies,” she added.

Stereotyping also stifles women in prestigious professional posts. Male characters outnumber female characters as attorneys and judges (13 to 1), professors (16 to 1), and doctors (5 to 1). In contrast, the ratios tipped in the favour of females when it came to hypersexualisation. Girls and women were over twice as likely as boys and men to be shown in sexualised attire, with some nudity, or thin.

“Females bring more to society than just their appearance,” said Stacy L. Smith, the principal investigator. “These results illuminate that globally, we have more than a film problem when it comes to valuing girls and women. We have a human problem.”

While the report shows how discriminatory attitudes that affect women and girls are reflected in film worldwide, it also points to some significant differences among countries. The frontrunners (UK, Brazil, South Korea) feature female characters in 38 – 35.9 per cent of all speaking roles on-screen. UK-US collaborations and Indian films are at the bottom of the pack, clocking in at 23.6 per cent and 24.9 per cent female respectively. Half of South Korean films featured a female lead or co-lead, as did 40 per cent of the films analysed from China, Japan and Australia.

“Twenty years ago, 189 Governments adopted the Beijing Platform for Action, the international roadmap for gender equality, which called on media to avoid stereotypical and degrading depictions of women. Two decades on, this study is a wake-up call that shows that the global film industry still has a long way to go,” said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. “With their powerful influence on shaping the perceptions of large audiences, the media are key players for the gender equality agenda. With influence comes responsibility. The industry cannot afford to wait another 20 years to make the right decisions,” she added. Across the films assessed, women comprised nearly one-in-four film-makers behind the camera (directors, writers, producers). Yet when films featured a woman director or writer, the number of female characters on-screen increased significantly. One obvious remedy to gender disparity on-screen is to hire more female film-makers. Another approach is calling on film executives to have a heightened sensitivity to gender imbalance and stereotyping on-screen. “The evidence is even clearer now that what we see on-screen reflects the off-screen realities of women’s lives all too well,” said Sundaa Bridgett-Jones, Associate Director at The Rockefeller Foundation. “As we look to the future, The Rockefeller Foundation is committed to expanding opportunities for more broadly shared prosperity. For this to happen, we need to move beyond tired stereotypes that constrain women and men from realising their full human potential.”

Key findings of the study include:  Only 30.9 per cent of all speaking characters are female.  A few countries are doing better than the global norm: UK (37.9 per cent), Brazil (37.1 per cent), and South Korea (35.9 percent). However, these percentages fall well below population norms of 50 per cent. Two samples fall behind: US/UK hybrid films (23.6 per cent) and Indian films (24.9 per cent) show female characters in less than one-quarter of all speaking roles.  Females are missing in action/adventure films. Just 23 per cent of speaking characters in this are female.  Out of a total of 1,452 film-makers with an identifiable gender, 20.5 per cent were female and 79.5 per cent were male. Females comprised 7 per cent of directors, 19.7 per cent of writers, and 22.7 per cent of producers across the sample.  Films with a female director or female writer attached had significantly more girls and women on-screen than did those without a female director or writer attached.  Sexualisation is the standard for female characters globally: girls and women are twice as likely as boys and men to be shown in sexually revealing clothing, partially or fully naked, thin, and five times as likely to be referenced as attractive. Films for younger audiences are less likely to sexualise females than are those films for older audiences.  Teen females (13-20 years old) are just as likely as young adult females (21-39 years old) to be sexualised.  Female characters only comprise 22.5 per cent of the global film workforce, whereas male characters form 77.5 per cent.

Classic quotes from some of Hollywood’s original leading ladies: A dame that knows the ropes isn’t likely to get tied up. -

I am just too much. –

Sex. In an obsession. In other parts of the world a fact. -

If you are blessed, you are blessed, whether you are married or single. -

It [prejudice] is such a waste. It makes you logy and half-alive. It gives you nothing. It takes away. –

A 41-inch bust and a lot of perseverance will get you more than a cup of coffee – a lot more. – Jayne Mansfield

Enemies are so stimulating. – Katherine Hepburn

Egotism – usually just a case of mistaken nonentity. -

I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best. – I’ve been through it all, baby, I’m courage. -

I’m letting no man handle my bank account. – Hattie McDaniel Look at me and tell me if I don’t have Brazil in every curve of my body. – Carmen Miranda

I’ve never really thought on myself as a sex goddess, more a comedienne who could dance. – Rita Hayworth

I am not a has-been. I am a will be. –

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others. -

Every age can be enchanting, provided you live within it. -

I’m not young. What’s wrong with that? –

I like to wake up each morning feeling a new man. –

I was the shyest human ever invented, but I had a lion inside me that wouldn’t shut up. -

Everything you see I owe to spaghetti. –

I was never the girl next door. – Bettie Page

A gentleman is simply a patient wolf. –

I don’t fear death because I don’t fear anything I don’t understand. When I start to think about it, I order a massage and it goes away. –

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. –

From the moment I was six I felt sexy. And let me tell you it was hell, sheer hell, waiting to do something about it. – Bette Davis

The World’s highest paid actresses

15 – ($15 Million) South African born Charlize Theron’s acting career began in the late 1990s with films like The Devil’s Advocate, The Cider House Rules and The Italian Job. Charlize then found instant fame in 2003 with her award- winning performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, which was followed up with the award-winning North Country in 2005. Worth around $15 million, Charlize has spent the last decade starring in films such as Snow White and the Huntsman, A Million Ways to Die in the West and Mad Max: Fury Road. Her most recent film—The Huntsman: Winter’s War—was a flop at the box office, but Theron demanded the same salary as her co-star Chris Hemsworth to reprise her role as Queen Ravenna. The directors eventually budgeted to meet her demands which led the star to earn an extra $10 million for the film.

14 – Cara Delevingne ($15 Million) London born Cara Delevigne initially worked as a model with Storm Model Management, earning “Model of the Year” at the British Fashion Awards. Cara decided to try her hand at acting in 2012 when she landed a minor role in . From there, she was cast as Margo Spiegelman in Paper Towns before seeing her career explode in 2016 with four movies in addition to Suicide Squad. Continuing to model for brands like Dolce & Gabbana and Burberry, Cara is also a singer, drummer and guitarist in addition to creating two collections for DKNY and Mulberry, all of which has added to her $15 million net worth.

13 – Renee Zellweger ($15 Million) This Texas native took a five year break from acting in 2009 after several releases flopped at the box office. More recently though, Renee regained success in Bridget Jones’s Baby, which was released in September 2016. She has received dozens of awards for performances in films like Jerry Maguire, Nurse Betty and Chicago.

12 – ($15 Million) A child star in The Man in the Moon in 1991, Louisiana native Reese Witherspoon attributes her early success to her role in the 1998 film Pleasantville that earned her a Young Hollywood Award. Reese gained critical acclaim for her performance as in in 2001 and followed up the hit with the romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama in 2002. She has dozens of film credits to her name including Walk the Line, Gone Girl and Wild. She made the transition from silver screen to television as an actress and producer when she took on the role of Madeline Martha in her own series Big Little Lies - set to debut in 2017. To add to her success, Reese has endorsed numerous products but is best known as a Global Ambassador of Avon. 11 – ($15 Million) Amy Adams was paid a huge salary to star as Lois Lane in the 2016 superhero flick Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. The first film role for Adams since 2014, Amy also stars in Arrival and Nocturnal Animals—in addition to a further role as Lois Lane set for the 2017 release of Justice League. Named as one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine, Adams has come a long way from her first major role as Frank Abagnale’s girlfriend in the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can. Now a two-time Golden Globe winner with five Academy Award nominations for performances in films like Junebug, American Hustle and Enchanted, Amy will be starring on the small screen with her upcoming role in the HBO film Sharp Objects.

10 – ($15 Million) Debuting as the heroine in the video game Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001, Angelina established herself as an action star in films like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Wanted and Salt before expanding her career into directing and producing. Now considered one of the most influential women in the world in terms of acting, fashion and humanitarianism, she was, until recently, also part of the biggest power couple in the industry alongside . With an estimated net worth of over $400 million, Angelina has starred in films such as Maleficent, By the Sea and Kung Fu Panda 3 with upcoming projects including First They Killed My Father, The Breadwinner and Maleficent 2. Jolie still gets paid even when she isn’t in front of the camera as a filmmaker, producer and writer in addition to making the occasional endorsement.

9 – ($16 Million) “Pretty woman, walking down the street…” Recognized as one of the most successful actresses at the box office after grossing nearly $3 billion over the last three decades, Julia Roberts became a Hollywood star when she debuted opposite Richard Gere in the 1990 romantic comedy Pretty Woman. Roberts won the hearts of audiences with her beauty, talent and charm as she went on to star in blockbusters like My Best Friend’s Wedding, Runaway Bride, Erin Brockovich and Ocean’s Eleven. Making only $300,000 for Pretty Woman in 1990, Roberts was paid $25 million for her role in Mona Lisa Smile in 2003 with her salary only going up from there. Now worth an estimated $140 million, Julia’s most recent films include Mother’s Day and Money Master.

8 – Kate Beckinsale ($16 Million) British born Beckinsale was an instant star and a household name thanks to her roles in films like Pearl Harbor, Underworld, Serendipity and The Aviator. Now worth $16 million, she has three projects in the works including the Jane Austen comedy Love & Friendship as well as the horror film The Disappointments Room. She has also reprised her role as Selene in the Underworld series by following up the 2009 release of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans with Underworld: Blood Wars, which was released in 2016.

7 – ($16.5 Million) Jennifer Aniston gained international fame for her performance as Rachel Green on the widely popular television sitcom Friends that aired from 1994 to 2004. Aniston became “America’s Sweetheart” and transitioned from a television to a silver screen star with notable film credits that include Along Came Polly, Bruce Almighty, The Good Girl and Horrible Bosses. In 2016 Aniston starred in three films—Mother’s Day, The Yellow Birds and Office Christmas Party—in addition to appearing in ads for numerous products like Smart Water, Aveeno, Emirates and more.

6 – Bingbing Fan ($21 Million) Making the top 10 of the highest paid actresses in the world and the only one from outside the United States on our list is China’s Bingbing Fan who rose to fame in East Asia on the hit television series My Fair Princess in 1998. Fan has appeared in movies around the world and earned dozens of awards with her most recent work in the American blockbuster X-Men: Days of Future Past. In her native China, Fan is also considered a fashion icon. She has quickly become one of the highest paid actresses in the world as she brings in big money from films like Lost in Beijing, Double Xposure, Stretch and My Way. To add to her $21 million salary, the 35-year-old actress has country-wide endorsement deals with Chopard and L’Oreal. She’s also proven her talents as a singer whose ballads climbed to the top 50 on MTV Asia’s charts.

5 – Melissa McCarthy ($23 Million) Slowly rising to fame as the quirky and endearing chef on from 2000 to 2007, Melissa McCarthy ignited her career on sitcoms like Samantha Who? and Mike & Molly where her talents as a and actress were recognized with a Primetime Emmy Award. Melissa then made her breakthrough in film in the 2011 comedy Bridesmaids and followed up the hit with starring roles in and The Heat. A go- to actress in comedy over the last few years and with the salary to prove it, Forbes named McCarthy the third-highest paid actress in 2015 thanks to her leading roles in films such as Tammy, St. Vincent and Spy that grossed millions in box offices worldwide.

4 – Kaley Cuoco ($28.5 Kaley made her first film appearance at 10 years old in Virtuosity, and then was cast as Bridget Hennessy on the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules with John Ritter in 2002. Wrapping up the show in 2005 and appearing in the final season of Charmed, Cuoco landed her biggest role yet in 2007 when she was cast as Penny in The Big Bang Theory. Still on air today, The Big Bang Theory has made Cuoco one of the richest actresses in Hollywood earning $1 million per episode, which is the highest since the late 1990s when Jennifer Aniston and the Friends cast demanded a raise. Currently worth an estimated $45 million and only 30 years old, Cuoco balances a busy workload of filming while endorsing brands like Toyota and Priceline.

3 – Sofia Vergara ($28.5 Million) Columbian actress Sofia Vergara has become one of the highest paid actresses in the world. First co-hosting Spanish television shows on Univision in the late 1990s, Vergara made her way to film in the early 2000s when she caught the eye of who invited her to join the cast of Meet the Browns and Goes to Jail. Returning to television in 2009 as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on Modern Family, Vergara continues to star in recent films like The Smurfs, The Three Stooges and Hot Pursuit. Currently tied with Kaley Cuoco as the highest paid actress in television with a salary of $28.5 million, Vergara also adds to her fortune by endorsing products like Head & Shoulders and Diet Pepsi.

2 – ($35.5 Million) Scarlett Johansson was only 10 years old when she made her film debut in North and gained further acclaim for her role in The Horse Whisperer in 1998. Establishing herself as a rising star and growing up in front of the camera, Johansson has become known for films like Lost in Translation, The Other Boleyn Girl and, most recently, her portrayal as the Black Widow in the Marvel Comic’s film franchise. Today, when Johansson is cast as the in movies like Lucy, she easily nets around $10 million but, when it comes to even bigger blockbusters like Iron Man and The Avengers series, she takes a box office percentage for herself. Earning around $35.5 million per year and expected to make $17.5 million from the upcoming release of Ghost in the Shell.

1 – ($52 Million) The highest earning actress and the youngest is 25-year-old Jennifer Lawrence. First spotted by a talent scout in City at the age of 14 and then moving to , Lawrence joined the cast of The Bill Engvall Show in 2007 and made her film debut in Garden Party in 2008 before earning critical acclaim for her performance in Winter’s Bone in 2010. Since then, the Academy Award nominee has seen ongoing success in both the X-Men and Hunger Games franchises in addition to films like Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. Lawrence negotiated part of her contract to include a portion of box office earnings. With three Golden Globe Awards and four Academy Award nominations to her name for films like Joy in addition to an endorsement deal with Dior, the Kentucky- born Lawrence will undoubtedly see her $52 million salary climb as she holds onto the title as the highest paid actress in the world.

34 women who changed cinema

1. , director. Credit: Joel Ryan The first woman to win Best Director at the Oscars, the Baftas and the DGA Awards in 2010 - since her first short film The Set-Up, a deconstruction of violence on film, she has flourished with stories that combine staples of the action genre with a certain philosophical bent, and tough heroes with a notably vulnerable core. That approach is somewhat evident even in Point Break, her earliest big hit, but it’s most clearly expressed in , Strange Day and Zero Dark Thirty.

2. Alice Guy Blaché, , director, producer. Active from: 1896-1922. The first female writer-director of narrative films and perhaps the most prolific of all time, with over 1000 to her name – most of them lost – Guy was a true pioneer. For the first 10 years of her career, as far as anyone can tell, she was the world’s only female film director, taking her boss Léon Gaumont’s cameras and making narrative films with them for the first time. She established film grammar that inspired Hitchcock, and while her role was omitted from many published accounts of the silent era at the time, some 140 of her films survive to pay testament to her importance.

3. Kathleen Kennedy, producer. Known for: E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Back to the Future, Star Wars: The Force Awakens Credit: REX Shutterstock Kennedy began her Hollywood career as an assistant and then secretary with terrible typing skills but great ideas about production. wisely promoted her, and she produced most of his films for the next three decades, while occasionally collaborating with the other big directors in town: Scorsese, Zemeckis, Eastwood. Known as a story-focused producer, Kennedy took charge of in 2012, giving her the keys to one of Hollywood’s most important kingdoms, the Star Wars universe.

4. , cartoonist. Known for: The Credit: REX Shutterstock The Bechdel or Bechdel-Wallace test, which appeared in Bechdel’s cartoon strip Dykes To Watch Out For in 1985, is one of the most talked-about topics in film. The test asks that a film have two female characters talk to each other about something other than a man – and a majority of films don’t meet its standard. While not the be-all and end-all test of a film’s feminist credentials, it is a useful rule of thumb, and one Swedish cinema even suggested using the test to rate all incoming films.

5. Thelma Schoonmaker, editor. Known for: Raging Bull, The Departed, The Aviator Credit: Sipa Press/REX Shutterstock There is a long tradition of influential, virtuoso female film editors in Hollywood, where in the early days cutting was considered analogous to sewing and given to the women. Perhaps the best known is Schoonmaker, whose collaboration with has lasted longer than his relationships with either De Niro or DiCaprio. She has edited all his films since getting her union card in time for 1980s Raging Bull (she also edited his debut, Who’s That Knocking At My Door in 1967) and even cameoed as an editor in The Aviator. She’s the second most Oscar-nominated editor in history, and the joint biggest winner.

6. Leni Reifenstahl, director. Active: 1932-2002. Known for: The Triumph Of The Will, Credit: REX Shutterstock Not all pioneers are on the right side of history. Reifenstahl turned from an early career as an actor to directing, and made documentary classics that are still influential on sports photography in particular. The problem is that she made them for the Nazi party, and that while she was never convicted of any crime, she was at the very least a sympathiser with and an admirer of Hitler. So in film history she occupies much the same status as D.W. Griffith: a technical pioneer and consummate stylist whose reputation will forever be shaded by their political allegiance.

7. , critic. Active: 1953-1991. Known for: Her books Kiss Bang Bang, Deeper into Movies, Taking It All In Once described as “the Elvis or Beatles of ”, Kael’s writing was famed for its brash and confrontational style. She said, “A mistake in judgment isn't fatal, but too much anxiety about judgment is” and spent a lifetime living up to that lack of worry. Kael was withering on many popular films like The Sound Of Music and , and had something of a feud with . But through a glory period in the late Sixties and Seventies she championed directors including Brian De Palma, and Sam Peckinpah, unquestionably helped the career of Paul Schrader and influenced . Kael befriended and mentored a generation of critics who followed her, and is still frequently cited.

8. & Hedda Hopper, gossip columnists. Active: 1914-1965 (Parsons); 1937-1966 (Hopper). Known for: Their columns in Hearst’s newspapers (Parsons) and the (Hopper) Louella Parsons (second left) and Hedda Hopper (second right) at a party for Sophia Loren (left) Credit: Time Life Pictures/Ralph Crane

Perhaps the two most influential gossip columnists of the 20th century, these rivals competed to break the biggest celebrity stories. Parsons was slightly warmer but could be vicious, especially to those her boss, the newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst, disliked including and Ingrid Bergman. But the studios were threatened by her virtual monopoly on gossip and sponsored Hopper’s arrival – only to find that they had created a worse threat. Hopper proved utterly ruthless and politically intemperate – eg with Trumbo where portrays Hopper as a blacklist-supporting fury who destroys the careers of any suspected Lefty – but both could make or break careers in the studio era. At their peak they had a combined readership of 75 million as well as radio and later television broadcasting, dwarfing the scope of their modern rivals, and paved the way for Page Six, Perez Hilton, Nikki Finke and Gawker.

9. Edith Head, . Active: 1924-1981. Known for: All About Eve, Roman Holiday, The Credit: Everett Collection / Rex Features With eight wins and 35 nominations, Edith Head had an Oscar record that even would envy. From black-and-white, silent films into she excelled, despite starting with an almost total lack of design or costume design training. Head found herself in demand with female stars in particular because, unlike male contemporaries like Adrian, she consulted extensively with the actors about their characters. , Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn routinely demanded her services as a condition of their contracts – and she got the ultimate post-mortem accolade when she became the model for The Incredibles’ Edna Mode.

10. Jane Goldman, screenwriter, producer. Known for: The Woman in Black, Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class Credit: MARTIN POPE/MARTIN POPE With her crimson or occasionally pink hair, Jane Goldman looks like a superheroine – so it’s strangely appropriate that she should be the first major female writer in the current superhero trend. Along with Matthew Vaughn, she achieved the tricky job of turning Mark Millar’s defiantly bad- taste Kick-Ass into a likeable, genre-skewering hit. Their next collaboration saw her wangle the X-Men in a Sixties, Bond- tinged prequel, while solo she adapted Susan Hill’s immensely creepy The Woman In Black. Goldman’s career – including the forthcoming Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children with – are the ultimate proof that girls can be geeks too, and can flourish in this new, comic-book-obsessed Hollywood.

11. Sue Mengers, agent. Active from: 1955-1988. Known for: Representing Hollywood stars like , Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw Credit: Ron Galella “The whole world is mammals, and I’m a dinosaur.” Not only did Mengers become one of the first successful female agents, but for a period through the Seventies she was the most powerful agent in Hollywood full stop. She was known as a tough negotiator, a friend of her clients who would sometimes use tough love to keep them in line, and a great wit – albeit often at the expense of those around her.

Barbara Streisand briefly talked her into a production role at Paramount, but she soon returned to the agent game. Post- retirement, she became a great Hollywood hostess and occasional matchmaker, staying at the centre of an orbit of stars who flocked to her legendary parties. “My own mother wouldn’t have got in if she was standing outside in the rain,” said Mengers of her exclusive get-togethers.

12. Jennifer Lawrence, actress. Known for: Winter’s Bone, Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games Credit: Murray Close She’s already the youngest person ever to be nominated for three Oscars, and the most popular actress on Earth. But this winter Jennifer Lawrence will also likely become the first billion-dollar action movie female lead, with the climax to The Hunger Games Saga. She’s also changing the rules for young stars in Hollywood, making a virtue of extreme self-deprecation and goofiness while claiming, “They want me to be likeable all the time, and I’m just not”. Her negotiation of a $20m payday following the hack revelations that she’d previously earned less than her male stars, suggest that she’s formidable enough to make it to even greater heights.

13. Mae West, actress and screenwriter. Active from: 1907-1978. Known for: She Done Him Wrong, I’m No Angel, Goin’ To Town Credit: REX Shutterstock Today West is chiefly remember as the sexpot who suggested that “come up some time and see” her. But she was a playwright, screenwriter and comedienne of considerable talent, a child performer turned vaudeville veteran who wrote as well as starring in her biggest hits. She became the second highest-paid person in the United States in 1935 (after William Randolph Hearst) when she moved to Hollywood, landing a contract at the remarkably advanced age of 39 and becoming instantly notorious. Even when her saucier jokes were reined in by the Production Code, West survived to become a camp icon. “You only live once,” she said, “But if you do it right, once is enough.”

14. , director, screenwriter, artist. Active from: 1968-2015. Known for: Jeanne Dielman, News From Home, The Captive Credit: Jonathan Short The recent death of this Belgian visionary has deprived us of one of the most original voices in cinema. She is best remembered for the 1975 film Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, a story that mixes such ordinary activities as potato peeling with a thoroughly unglamorous look at prostitution. But while Akerman’s films were often hailed by feminists, she was concerned with issues far beyond gender, as shown in her last film, No Home Movie. Equally at home with documentaries, fiction and personal essay, Akerman was cited as an influence by Michael Haneke, Gus Van Sant and Sally Potter. 15. , actress, producer and studio founder. Active from: 1905-1933 (acting); 1949 (producing). Known for: Coquette, , the studio Credit: Daily Mail /REX Within three years of beginning her career, Pickford was acting as producer on her films and exercising total control over her collaborators, scripts and editing – while making up to 51 films a year. America’s original sweetheart may have played innocents and ingénues, but she was a hard-nosed businesswoman, securing herself a salary of $10,000 per week by 1916. With Charlie Chaplin and husband , she set up United Artists in 1919 to get a bigger slice of the profits and exercise even more control over her career. She did sterling work for the War effort in both World Wars, and continued to produce until 1949.

16. Lina Wertmüller, director, screenwriter. Active from: 1963-2004. Known for: , Swept Away, The Seduction Of Mimi Credit: Copyright (c) 1980 Rex Features. No use without permission./Alinari/REX Shutterstock It is perhaps not surprising that a woman born Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Español von Braueich would become notorious for whimsically long-winded film titles, inevitably shortened for international release. The Italian became the first female director to be nominated for an Oscar with Seven Beauties, a satirical tale of survival in a concentration camp, and with Giancarlo Gianini as her muse made a string of left-wing tinged social dramas. A background in theatre, an apprenticeship under Fellini and a flair for grand gestures made her a critical darling, and while her last film was in 2004 she still has not officially retired.

17. Lois Weber, actress, director, screenwriter, producer. Active from: 1908-1934. Known for: Suspense, Hypocrites, The Blot Credit: Apic A former child prodigy and concert pianist, Weber directed at least 135 films and may have made as many as 400, only 20 of which survive. She was as important to the development of film as D.W. Griffith, pioneering the use of split-screen and full-frontal female nudity. By 1914, she claimed an audience of 5-6 million people a week. She was the first female director to make a full-length film and one of the first directors anywhere to use sound. She also directed the first adaptation of Tarzan and launched many stars of the silent era. Like many female contemporaries her films dealt with issues – , birth control – subsequently banned under the 1930 Hays Production Code.

18. Debra Hill, screenwriter, producer. Active from: 1972-2005. Known for: , , The Fisher In her early career Hill was addressed as “honey” and assumed to be a make-up artist when she ventured on set. Determined to carve out a new niche, she soon succeeded in exchanging that greeting for a “maam”. In 1977 she teamed up with fledgling director to write and produce Halloween. She wrote the babysitter’s story while he worked on Sam Loomis’ tale, and then they stitched the two together with Michael Myers. That film launched a new wave of horror, and Hill, who died in 2005, remained Carpenter’s partner for years; she also went on to produce everything from Adventures in Babysitting to World Trade Center.

19. , director, editor, screenwriter, inventor of the boom mic. Active from: 1919- 1943. Known for: The Wild Party, The Bride Wore Red; Dance, Girl, Dance Credit: REX Shutterstock The most prolific female director under the studio era (and maybe since), Arzner started as a writer and editor so in-demand that she forced Paramount to give her a shot at directing by threatening to move studio. She made hugely successful films as director, before leaving Hollywood to make wartime training films and later Coca-Cola ads (at ’s request). She taught filmmaking at UCLA, where she influenced the young , and is also one of the most successful gay or directors in history. Oh, and Arzner invented the boom mic for her first , with , but neglected to patent the idea.

20. , screenwriter and studio executive. Active from: 1916-1927. Known for: The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, Blood And Sand, Greed On the set of 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse', director Rex Ingram and John F Seitz support June Mathis Credit: Hulton Archive Mathis wrote or co-wrote over 100 screenplays from 1915 on and established much now-standard screenwriting style, with innovations like including stage directions. As head of Metro’s screenwriting department she recommended the star for a prestige production of Four Horsemen – an unknown called Rudolph Valentino. Through the Twenties Mathis shepherded his rise while becoming one of the most influential and highly-paid people in town. While she was scapegoated for the butchered cut of Erich Stroheim’s Greed and the disastrous shoot of the 1924 Ben-Hur, Mathis continued to work as, essentially, a producer (her titles varied) before a heart attack at 38 cut her career short in 1927.

21. Dorothy Dandridge, actress. Active from: 1933-1965. Known for: Carmen Jones, Porgy & Bess Credit: REX Shutterstock Dandridge was not the first African-American Oscar nominee – Hattie McDaniels won Best Supporting Actress for Gone With The Wind – but she was the first nominated for a leading role, in 1954’s Carmen Jones. Throughout her career she struggled with the paucity of good roles available to her, especially given her lover ’s advice to accept only leads following her Oscar. But Dandridge’s astonishing beauty, singing talent and strong will – she and Margaret O’Hara were the only stars willing to testify against the tabloid press in the Hollywood Research Inc libel trial – influenced those who followed, notably (who played her onscreen), and .

22. , comedian, actress, screenwriter. Active from: 1958-2000. Known for: The Heartbreak Kid, Ishtar,

Elaine May and Credit: NBCUniversal Media Modern comedy might not exist without Elaine May. As a performer, her work with Mike Nichols influenced a generation including , Lili Tomlin and the original gang. As a screenwriter she was responsible for The Heartbreak Kid and A New Leaf, but did often-uncredited work on , Labyrinth, and Primary Colours (she was Oscar nominated for the last). Her directing career was bedevilled with problems, culminating in the famous flop of 1980's Ishtar. But May never lost her sense of humour. “If all of the people who hate Ishtar had seen it, I would be a rich woman today.”

23. , director, actress, producer. Known for: Big, , Awakenings Credit: REX Shutterstock

Certain very successful modern female directors are generally overlooked by academics and journalists, and Penny Marshall is one. She’s producing films these days, directing TV, and hoping to make a biopic of sports executive Effa Manley. But Marshall was, for a time, the most successful female director ever. She was the first female director to make a $100m hit, with Big, after every man in town turned it down. The film may not scream its directorial personality, but Marshall showed a sure flair for drama as well as comedy, even in later films including A League Of Their Own.

24. , actress. Active from: 1908-1926. Known for: Cleopatra, A Fool There Was Theda Bara was near 30 when her screen career began in 1914, and close-set eyes and a slightly odd face made her an unlikely sex symbol. But thanks to a studio-fabricated backstory – Born in the shadow of the Pyramids! – and endless focus on her exotic appeal, a sex symbol is what she became. “The Arch-Torpedo of Domesticity” was portrayed as a nearly vampiric figure, a silent dominatrix preying on her helpless male co-stars. While she strained against that typecasting and pushed for a wider selection of roles, Bara is notable as the first star to create her own legend from, essentially, thin air.

25. , screenwriter, director. Active from: 1973-2012. Known for: hen Harry Met Sally, , Nora Ephron came to film via journalism and essay writing, and brought a pin-sharp wit and eye for absurdity to her screenplays. The daughter of writers who wrote for Hepburn and Tracy, Ephron gave her work that same screwball sensibility, especially in the near- flawless When Harry Met Sally. Notably, she always gave her female characters the same chance to be witty as the men, and had an eye for casting, raising both Meg Ryan and even the great Meryl Streep to new heights. Along with the slightly less successful Sleepless in Seattle, which she also directed, Ephron set both the template and the high watermark for romantic comedies.

26. Reese Witherspoon, producer, actress. Known for: Legally Blonde, Wild, Walk the Line

She’s one of the bigger stars of the last 20 years, but Reese Witherspoon has recently taken a turn towards activism. In 2012, she asked all the major studios what they were developing for women. As she recalls, “literally one studio had a project for a woman over 30,” so Witherspoon began optioning and developing projects for herself and – more revolutionary – for others. The first results included Wild and Gone Girl, both Oscar nominees, and Witherspoon followed up with her “#AskHerMore” awards season push to pressure newspapers to ask actresses about something other than her dress.

27. Lauren Shuler-Donner, producer. Known for: Pretty In Pink, Any Given Sunday, X-Men series Credit: REX Shutterstock

Shuler-Donner was a rare female camera operator in local news when a car accident put her out of action for months and forced her towards story editing and then production. She never looked back, persuading to write what would become Mr Mom and working with him repeatedly. She said that familiarity with her husband, Richard Donner, and his work gave her the confidence to tackle more action-packed stories, to the point that she became the senior producer for the X-Men series. That makes her one of the main forces behind the superhero resurgence that now dominates cinemas, and therefore perhaps the most influential woman in Hollywood.

28. , director, writer, producer. Active from: 1980-present. Known for: , The Portrait Of A Lady, Bright Star Credit: REX Shutterstock

The second woman ever nominated for a directing Oscar and the first to win the Palme d’Or solo, Jane Campion is now cited as an influence by filmmakers as diverse as Suffragette’s Gavron and Mommy’s Xavier Dolan. Campion’s films tend to delve deep into character and paint rich, dense worlds, sometimes to an almost frustrating extent. In fact, it’s not surprising that she has done her best work in years in the new field of prestige TV with Top Of The Lake. But if Campion had only made The Piano and a few short films, it would have been enough to secure her influence among later generations.

29. Julia Phillips, producer. Active from: 1973-1991. Known for: The Sting, Taxi Driver, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Credit: AMPAS When Julia Phillips made history by accepting the Academy Award for Best Picture for The Sting, she was under the influence of “a diet pill, a small amount of coke, two joints, six halves of Valium, and a glass and a half of wine”. So it was a light night for the hard-living super-producer who had a string of big hits in the Seventies before falling out of the business, spending most of her money on cocaine and writing a tell-all memoir called You’ll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again, a book so scandalous it took the publisher’s lawyers 14 months to clear it for publication. But Phillips had no regrets. “If I had been a man, they would have closed ranks around me. They hated the woman thing.” 30. Euzhan Palcy, director, screenwriter, producer. Known for: Sugar Cane Alley, A Dry White Season, Siméon Credit: REX Shutterstock Palcy claims two film “godfathers”. Her French godfather is Francois Truffaut, who mentored her first film, Sugar Cane Alley, which won the Silver Lion at Venice and the French Cesar. Her American godfather was , who invited her to the Sundance Director’s Lab. Her next film, A Dry White Season, lured Marlon Brando out of retirement and was so critical of apartheid that it was banned in South Africa. It also made her the first black female director to be produced by a major Hollywood studio, an achievement that is still all-too rare.

31. , actress, producer, studio boss. Active from: 1968-2008. Known for: Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal Credit: REX Shutterstock When she was appointed President of Production at 20th Century Fox in 1980, Sherry Lansing became the first woman to head a Hollywood studio. Lansing had started her career as an actress, but dissatisfied with her own performance she moved into story and became a producer. It was when Lansing became CEO of Paramount that she really took off, with hits including Braveheart, , Forrest Gump and the co-production of Titanic. She’d come a long way. “At MGM I got promoted and I asked for a raise, to be equal to the guy who had the same job. I was told that I was earning quite enough for a single woman. I'm the person who said in Life magazine back then, 'There will never be a woman head of a studio in my lifetime.' And I believed it.”

32. Pam Grier, actress. Known for: Coffy, Foxy Brown, Jackie Brown

Pam Grier and in Jackie Brown Credit: Alamy Grier was a mainstay of the Blaxploitation movement, and their first female lead after director Jack Hill cast her, he said, for her “authority and presence”. She made 20 fiercely cool films between 1971 and 1981, but in the 80s her genre fell from favour while Grier herself fought cancer. She returned to work in theatre instead until 1995 brought a comeback when Quentin Tarantino asked her to star in Jackie Brown. “I hadn't been offered roles of that calibre forever. I was just doing other things until Quentin asked me. What I know is that all my work before Jackie Brown prepared me for that part.” It launched a new phase of Grier’s career, and she is still working steadily now.

33. Sigourney Weaver, actress. Known for: Alien, Working Girl, Gorillas In The Mist Sigourney Weaver in Alien Credit: Snap Stills / Rex Features In 1979, Sigourney Weaver was a virtual unknown cast among bigger names in ’s “haunted house in space” movie Alien. Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley was just a face in the crowd, and only gradually did the audience realise that this terrified but resourceful woman was the lead. Weaver reprised the role three more times, most notably in the action- oriented Aliens in 1986, and turned Ripley into the most popular female character in Hollywood cinema. She was Oscar nominated for the first film, an almost unheard- of feat in genre cinema, and started a trend for tough female action heroes that persists to this day. 34. , , actress, director, screenwriter, producer. Active from: 1912- 1925. Known for: The Hazards Of Helen, The Lone Hand, The Riddle Rider

In the , movie serials turned their female leads into huge international stars by showing the ladies jumping off trains, foiling robberies or jumping off bridges. Holmes and The Hazards Of Helen serial was one of the most successful, making her – among other things – John Wayne’s first crush. But competing against The Perils Of Pauline, The Exploits Of Elaine and the rest, the market for these female-led cliffhangers became saturated, and their stars fell on hard times. Holmes managed to make a few more Westerns into the 1920s and then became an animal trainer.

Extra research available Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema The First Hundred Years V. I & II Authored by Ally Acker

The long awaited,vastly expanded update to the 1990 groundbreaking classic edition used in universities worldwide. Features the pioneering female filmmakers that transformed movies behind the scenes since 1896.

About the author: New York Author & Filmmaker Ally Acker is the author of "Reel Women: THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS" the ground-breaking herstory of the women who changed the course of cinema since its inception. She is also the author of three collections of poems, the latest "Some Help from the Dead" released Oct. 2010 from Red Hen Press.

Based on Reel Women, Acker directed the 10 Part DVD documentary series, "Filmmakers on Film," featuring interviews with Hollywood's most influential filmmakers. Actress hosts the interactive CD-ROM based on Reel Women, "Reel Women: The Untold Story" in FLASH format compatible for PC & MAC. For more info, see www.reelwomen.com. Volume I: 1890's - 1950's with a ForeWord by

Volume II : 1960's - 2010 with a ForeWord by (https://www.createspace.com/3477330).

Publication Date: Aug 08 2011 ISBN/EAN13: 1440489610 / 9781440489617

Publication Date: Mar 31 2012 ISBN/EAN13: 1460971949 / 9781460971949

Websites to visit https://research.ncl.ac.uk/womensworkftvi/

Women's Work in British Film and Television is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. It is a collaborative partnership between Newcastle University and De Montfort University and will run from January 2014 to June 2017. http://www.reelwomen.com/