Major Hollywood film and TV studios have long been criticized for failing to create a level playing field for women. While insiders and studies have highlighted the entertainment industry’s one-sided hiring practices in recent months and years, now the complainants have found an ally.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and the national ACLU Women’s Rights Project said Tuesday they will ask federal and California civil rights agencies to investigate a “systemic failure” to hire female directors in film and television.
The New York Times reports those accused of gender discrimination include Hollywood’s major studios, networks and talent agencies, and all could potentially face litigagation, for what the ACLU described as widespread and intentional discrimination.
Melissa Goodman, Director of the L.G.B.T., Gender and Reproductive Justice Project at the ACLU of Southern California, said: “Women directors aren’t working on an even playing field and aren’t getting a fair opportunity to succeed… Gender discrimination is illegal. And really Hollywood doesn’t get this free pass when it comes to civil rights and gender discrimination.”
While the group has not named any specific guilty parties, they are requesting civil rights agencies to look at statistical evidence of systemic “overt sex stereotyping and implicit bias.”
Among the evidence, are recent studies and hiring information from studios, networks and the Directors Guild of America to identify employers with the worst records, according to the Times.
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