Hollywood fails to tackle inequality in director's chair

Hollywood has failed to make progress in reducing gender and racial inequality in the past decade, with a vast majority of directors being male and white, according to a new study.

The study, "Inclusion in the Director's Chair?" by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California, analyzed data on gender and race of 1,223 directors of the 1,100 top movies over the last decade from 2007 to 2017, reports Xinhua news agency.

It found that 95.7 per cent of the directors were male and only 4.3 per cent were female. This represented a ratio of 22 males to each female director.

In 2017, only eight of the top 100 movies were directed by women. None of these female directors appeared previously in the 100 top films across the 11-year time frame investigated.

The findings underscore the magnitude of a problem that has come into focus in the last few months as the entertainment industry grapples with its treatment of women.

Hollywood was bombarded in 2017 with a wave of sexual harassment and misconduct accusations that were made against many powerful figures in Hollywood.

To make true progress, the study suggested that expanding the number of jobs filled by women was required.

It also highlighted racial inequality in director's chair.

Only 5.2 per cent of all the 1,223 directors were black and 3.2 per cent were Asian across the 11 years evaluated.

--IANS

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