Female films: Where did the women go? How Hollywood fell out of love with female-made and -led film
Sat, Feb 20, 2021, 06:00 Anna Carey
A large cast of 26 women singing with a reclining piano player, Hollywood, California, circa 1922. Photograph: Underwood Archives/ Getty
In 1917, eight female directors made films for Universal Studios. In 2017, the same studio produced just one film directed by a woman – Pitch Perfect 3. So what happened? In her new book, Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film, Empire magazine writer Helen O’Hara explores the changing role of women in the Hollywood system, from the earliest days of cinema to the 21st century. It’s less a straightforward history and more a look at how women have worked and continue to work with and against the structural forces stacked against them.