--- title: Study: More Female Directors Leads to More Women Film Hires description: Films directed by women are much more likely to employ women in other behind-the-scenes roles canonical: https://time.com/4087813/female-directors-study/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-27T07:01:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:05:16.080Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Here's Why It's So Important to Hire More Female Directors og:description: It helps other women in the business og:url: https://time.com/4087813/female-directors-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd47d74babf1c2a43/698869ff8e06019238463051/kathryn-bigelow-ava-duvernay.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Kathryn-Bigelow-Ava-DuVernay og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Why It's So Important to Hire More Female Directors twitter:description: It helps other women in the business twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd47d74babf1c2a43/698869ff8e06019238463051/kathryn-bigelow-ava-duvernay.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Why It's So Important to Hire More Female Directors > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Oct 27, 2015 7:01 AM UTC  Left: Kathryn Bigelow attends the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Nov. 9, 2013; Right: Ava DuVernay poses at the 26th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala in Palm Springs, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2015. Left: Kathryn Bigelow attends the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Nov. 9, 2013; Right: Ava DuVernay poses at the 26th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala in Palm Springs, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2015.Jason LaVeris—FilmMagic/Getty Images; Danny Moloshok—Reuters  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Oct 27, 2015 7:01 AM UTC Putting a woman in the director’s chair makes it much more likely that the film will also achieve gender parity in other behind-the-scenes roles, according to a new study that examines last year’s top-grossing films. The study makes an ongoing federal probe in Hollywood’s hiring practices all the more urgent. Women made up just 13% of directors who released a film to theaters last year and not even one-tenth of the directors on the 250 top-grossing films. “The findings suggest that women directors, executive producers and producers may serve and important gateway function in the employment of other women in key behind-the-scenes roles,” Martha Lauzen, who conducted the study of 700 films from last year and acts as director at the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, said in a statement. **MORE:** [Sandra Bullock is Glad Hollywood ‘Got a Spanking’ Over Gender Pay Gap](http://time.com/4082059/sandra-bullock-our-brand-is-crisis-sexism/) The effect of women in directing roles was especially clear in the writers’ room: women made up just over half the writing staff on female-directed films but merely 8% of the writers on male-directed ones. The study comes at a time when the government is [probing Hollywood’s hiring practices for signs of discrimination](http://deadline.com/2015/10/female-directors-hollywood-federal-investigation-eeoc-1201568487/). Lauzen recently found that fewer women directed films last year than in 1998\. Women who do get to direct are often given smaller budgets and face an uphill battle even once their film is made. A legitimate outcry over the [Oscars snubbing _Selma_ director Ava DuVernay](http://time.com/3669999/oscars-2015-nominees-selma-ava-duvernay/) last year brought issues of sexism and racism in Hollywood to the fore. Following a request from the ACLU, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has launched an investigation into the dearth of jobs for female directors in Hollywood. “Many of these women directors have been told that they ‘can’t be trusted with money’ by studio executives,” Ariela Migdal, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU, [told](http://time.com/3855507/aclu-hollywood-sexism-gender-bias/) TIME in May. “This isn’t just about stereotypes and implicit bias, it’s about blatant discrimination. We heard over and over again from female directors that they’ve been told, ‘This show is too hard for women’ or ‘You can’t do this movie, it’s action’—this to women who have directed plenty of action.” _Zero Dark Thirty_ director Kathryn Bigelow [told](http://time.com/3856444/kathryn-bigelow-aclu-sexism-hollywood/) TIME she supported the request when it was launched in the spring. “I have always firmly believed that every director should be judged solely by their work, and not by their work based on their gender. Hollywood is supposedly a community of forward thinking and progressive people yet this horrific situation for women directors persists,” Bigelow said. “Gender discrimination stigmatizes our entire industry. Change is essential. Gender neutral hiring is essential.” **MORE:** [Kathryn Bigelow: We Must End Gender Discrimination in Hollywood](http://time.com/3856444/kathryn-bigelow-aclu-sexism-hollywood/) The new report finds that women make up just 20% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers who worked on theatrically released films in 2014\. Women were more likely to be employed in several behind-the-camera roles if a female director was involved with the film. Just 15% of editors were women on films made by men, compared to 35% on films made by women. Similarly women made up 5% of cinematographers on films made by men and 26% on those made by women. Women behind the camera aren’t the only ones fighting for work. The center has issued dozens of reports on women’s representation in Hollywood, including one that found women made up just 12% of protagonists and 30% of all speaking characters in last year’s top 250 films. Even the most high-profile actresses, like Jessica Chastain and Sandra Bullock, have spoken to TIME about the relative lack of meaty roles for women in Hollywood. In the last few years, _Gravity_ star and Oscar winner Bullock has asked her agent to start sending her roles written for men in hopes of finding more interesting parts. (The result is her latest film, _Our Brand Is Crisis_, in which she plays a ruthless political operative.) **MORE:** [Jessica Chastain on How _Crimson Peak_ Will Change the Way We View Women in Movies](http://time.com/4063508/jessica-chastain-crimson-peak-meryl-streep-women-film/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4087813/female-directors-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4087813/female-directors-study/"},"headline":"Here's Why It's So Important to Hire More Female Directors","datePublished":"2015-10-27T07:01:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:05:16.080Z","description":"Films directed by women are much more likely to employ women in other behind-the-scenes roles","url":"https://time.com/4087813/female-directors-study/","keywords":["movies","sexism"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd47d74babf1c2a43/698869ff8e06019238463051/kathryn-bigelow-ava-duvernay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd47d74babf1c2a43/698869ff8e06019238463051/kathryn-bigelow-ava-duvernay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Kathryn-Bigelow-Ava-DuVernay","caption":"Left: Kathryn Bigelow attends the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Nov. 9, 2013; Right: Ava DuVernay poses at the 26th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala in Palm Springs, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2015.","creditText":"Jason LaVeris—FilmMagic/Getty Images; Danny Moloshok—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4087813/female-directors-study/","name":"Here's Why It's So Important to Hire More Female Directors"}}]}] ```