Why Women Still Need to Fight for Adland Equality

Talent is talent, and in the world of film - whether it’s a commercial or a feature - it shouldn’t matter what gender you are. Whether you have a penis or a vagina is not mandate for being able to tell a good story.

Men are way out front in the awards stakes because there are fewer women in the industry to begin with. Female directors are just not the norm, and as a consequence they become a much harder commercial sell. It can also be easier to give women work that they are more readily associated with, which is not necessarily the work that wins awards. It’s also easy to think in stereotypes. Would anyone give a car commercial to a woman? Or would it simply be assumed to be a ‘man’s job’? For women, it is therefore much harder to come by the award-winning ideas and transcend the preconceived notions of what women should be creating and break the glass ceiling. Women want to be judged not by their sex but purely by their ability as men are.  

Gender doesn’t just affect getting work, but how you are perceived when you come to create it. Being in the minority of anything (gender, ethnicity, disability or socio-economic background for example) means that you have to work twice as hard as you constantly feel the need to prove yourself. Men also have to work hard, but not to represent or prove the abilities of their sex, just to represent themselves - this should be an opportunity that everybody has.

A director has to have a strong vision and carry that vision for the duration of a job. It is socially acceptable for a man to have a strong view and a strong opinion, but for women, this comes with the added struggle of not coming across as ‘bossy’ – but to quote Beyoncé, “I’m not bossy, I’m the boss” (below). 

So whilst gender shouldn’t be such an influential factor in creating works of film, it has been. This paradigm has existed since the birth of filmmaking but hopefully this will not always be the case. You cannot open a newspaper or turn on the TV without being hit by the need for female empowerment - we have a female Prime Minister in the UK and it looks like the USA will have a female president (fingers crossed). Women are finally having their moment, and it’s not just because we are female – it’s because we’re good at what we do. 

Female role models like these leading ladies subsequently become hugely important for future generations. When I was growing up I didn’t have a role model, but my own daughter, who is also considering a directing career, doesn’t feel that her opportunities will be limited by the fact that she is female. I like to think that I have played some part in this. 

There are many plusses to being a female director, as there is no obvious wage gap and the industry is growing more and more forward thinking. I love being a director, and I do believe things are changing and in years to come there will as many women directing as there are men. It won’t be about sex or gender, but purely about talent, passion and tenacity. I was asked recently if you need a penis to direct, I said no you don’t, but you do need a big pair of balls.