Even with women heading up several of Hollywood's major film companies and network television programming departments, as well as being presidents of three major talent unions, it is not evident how much women are leading the development of filmed entertainment projects.

In a Hollywood Reporter Special Issue on Women in Entertainment (December, 1999), Lucy Fisher commented: "A woman running a studio is not a novelty like it used to be." 

But, she added, "The owners of the companies are not often women." 

And women in other positions with the power to create and produce filmed entertainment projects are likewise in the minority. For example, the Writers Guild estimates women wrote only about 17% of all the screenplays produced during the past decade. 

Screenwriter Susannah Grant noted in a recent article that the industry views "chick flicks" as the kiss of death at the box office, and the success of her film "Erin Brockovich" is exceptional. 

"I'm very passionate about writing things that will appeal to women as well as men," she also said, "because there are so many things that are told specifically from a male perspective for a male perspective. A lot of times women don't feel real to me in movies. They don't feel like people I know. I've just felt my own worldview has not been represented." 

Although Julia Roberts (who helped ensure the success of "Erin Brockovich") is acclaimed as one of the elite top ten stars in terms of boxoffice, salary and power, women in general get only about a third of all movie and TV roles, and earn less than male actors in all age categories except the twenties. Women over 40 get about 9% of the parts, while men over 40 get 27%. In executive positions at major studios there are still four times as many men as women. 

As Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas (agent of Julia Roberts) has put it, "I don't know why people think the entertainment business is different than any other. Maybe the glass ceiling has been raised a bit. But certainly when a woman hits her head on it, she can look up and see men's loafers." [eonline.com]

Commenting about the Women in Film Crystal & Lucy Awards of 2003, Variety editor Elizabeth Guider wrote in one of her columns, "The coterie of female execs and producers who typically pick up awards like these walk as confidently as men through the corridors of power -- but they seem to be responsible for movies and shows indistinguishable from what a man would be making. 

"Whatever might be the personal predilections of female studio chieftains, what works commercially are male-driven franchises such as 'Spider-Man,' '2 Fast, 2 Furious' and 'Mission: Impossible,' all of which were greenlit by past or present Crystal winners. ...

"Women in Film made a point of honoring women who had broken down barriers and outdone men at their own game. ... Despite their achievement, though, there is a part of me that would love to see a 'female' sensibility infuse more of what's on those studio movie slates or primetime schedules. Does their success inevitably mean these women have had to embrace subject matter and approaches to material that don't resonate with their gender?"

Talent agencies may be more powerful than studios in terms of actually getting projects developed and produced. ICM Chairman Jeff Berg recently commented, "Part of the old-boy network has been stripped away. But the fact remains that the three major agencies are operated by men. Many more women have entered the ranks; but it goes beyond numbers to attitudes." 

William Morris Agency President Jerry Katzman has candidly remarked about that attitude: "Once you get to the top level, there is an incorrect belief that a woman cannot do as much... as a man can do." 

That sort of limiting perception of the capability of women is nothing new, as Agnes Varda noted, when asked if it was difficult being a woman director: "It is difficult being a director, period! It is difficult to be free; it is difficult not to be drowned in the system. We have a lot of women in the film industry. It is in terms of consciousness that we have not got it right." 

Acclaimed film critic, columnist and author Molly Haskell, in "From Reverence to Rape," discusses male cinema and male criticism as often being infantile, noting actresses are regularly ignored or transformed into love objects. She sees male critics' immaturity as "one of the more common and less endearing manifestations of the eternal adolescence that hangs on the American male." 

That enduring adolescent sensibility may be one reason many men are unwilling to grant power to women, or see women as being equally entitled to power in relationships or business.

In her article "Get Reel!..." Haskell notes, "It's still a man's world out there, but we're beginning to see not just the occasional stellar or quirky female performance, but women and girls actually driving the plot... after years of getting only the guy side of bonding -- little men, little men in groups, little men come of age, little men blow each other up -- we're at last in the midst of a blizzard of estrogen-driven fables.."

She acknowledges the work of women writers, directors and producers in bringing about such a positive evolution, and thinks the "real change is in the landscape of filmmaking itself: women emerging from film schools (where they constitute half of all enrollees) and the flourishing of independent cinema under the aegis of festivals like Sundance."

Ally Acker writes in a bio about Ida Lupino, "The back of her director's chair read, 'Mother Of Us All...', a nom de plume that Ida Lupino solicited, encouraged and used fully to subversive advantage. It was her armor against a time when women needed to be sexless to be effective in a man's terrain. It was a technique that for a time proved ingenious.

"'You don't tell a man,' Lupino once said, 'You suggest to them. 'Let's try something crazy here. That is, if it's comfortable for you, love.' I'd say, 'Darlings, Mother has a problem. I'd love to do this. Can you do it? It sounds kooky, I know. But can you do this (lit'l ol' thang) for Mother?' And they do it - they just go and do it. I loved being called Mother.'" 

Much of the power and control in filmmaking is based on technical expertise, which for most of human history has been considered male territory, and supposedly female attributes and skills have long been perceived as secondary, of lower value to business enterprise. 

Many so-called male skills have been seen as "inappropriate" for women. As late as the first part of this century, it was thought that most women were "too delicate" to attend college. Director Martha Coolidge notes that when she applied to film school she was told that as a woman she just couldn't be a director. She didn't accept that attitude: "it didn't occur to me that I couldn't do it. Gender is not a demarcation of what one can or cannot do." 

A recent survey by Advertising Women of New York (AWNY) of professional men and women in several communications fields found some telling differences in current perceptions: some 65% of the women surveyed said that the "old boys" network and sexist attitudes inhibit their career growth, while about 80% of the men said they believed women have equal opportunities in the areas of responsibility, promotion and salary. 

In a study by the Australian Film Commission, where women comprise about 40% of feature film personnel, and 22% of the directors, over half of the women surveyed said that attitudes to them and their work were based on stereotyped assumptions. 

Though men and women are much more alike than different, there are distinctions that affect how we perform and achieve, and relate to competition. 

As "Fried Green Tomatoes" co-producer Anne Marie Gillen once noted, "If you look at how little boys play on a team, there's a leader, they pick you or they don't pick you, they go out there and beat each other up, they win the game and it's over and they put their arms around each other and go on. But little girls play one-on-one (and think), she's my best friend - I don't want to hurt her feelings, because if she leaves, I'm alone." 

Psychotherapist Laura Morris, who works with a number of women in the industry, has another viewpoint: "We are brought up to compete with other women. They are 'The Enemy' - they're going to get something we're after. Men have a closer bonding...they aren't that competitive with each other... I think we make our own glass ceiling by not being very nice to each other." 

Our perceptions of others can be distorted and distorting. Producer Gale Anne Hurd has commented, "I remember Dawn Steel, whose moniker was 'The Queen of Mean.' I found her to be the nicest, warmest, most supportive studio executive when I was working with her. I could not understand the perception, outside of perhaps her office, that she was this horrible boss who was cruel and impossible to work with. The interesting thing is that [the moniker] hurt her deeply. Men, on the other hand, would have loved to have that characterization, making them tough." [Hollywood Reporter, Dec., 1999.] 

Asked in an interview, "What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about you?" Julia Roberts said, "Hmm. That I'm a bitch. [Why..?] Because I'm tall and I'm really smart. [She laughs]. Anyway, you know what it is? Opinionated isn't the right word. I have ideas and I'm willing to share them and also willing for someone to say, 'Not your best idea.' If you're aggressive and energetic about things, it can be intimidating to people.." 

She went on to talk about reactions from directors, and said, "I've been Julia for 32 years, so I'm pretty down with it. I think that the way I express myself and my openness to ideas, positive or negative, is pretty clear. It comes down to the personality and character of the director. It's not about who I am, but who that person is." [from mrshowbiz.go.com interview about making "Erin Brockovich."] 

Sharon Stone has commented, "Women in the movie business are never going to be wholly popular... If I were a petite, brunette, ethnic lawyer, then my behavior would be totally acceptable. 

"But we Barbie Dolls are not supposed to behave the way I do... I used to believe that everyone could be as thoughtful or intelligent as they wanted to be, and I was impatient and sometimes mean because I thought people were just screwing with me when they weren't getting what I was saying." 

In a review of Rachel Abramowitz' new book "Is That a Gun in Your Pocket.." writer Amy Wallace commented, "The entertainment industry is probably no more chauvanistic than any other male-dominated profession in which aggression and perseverance carry the day. Here the feminists are marginalized, while many successful women would prefer to be seen as professionals without being categorized by their gender." (LA Times, 6.11.00] 

Writer Laurie Winer notes in her article "The industry women on the side" that "Despite a patina of political correctness sexism remains Hollywood's dirty little secret." She writes, "While doing research on silent films, [director Allison] Anders discovered the 'magnificent melodramas' of a director who went by the name of Mrs. Wallace Reid (Dorothy Davenport). 'She kicked King Vidor's butt,' Anders says, 'and no one remembers her. I ached when I realized that she had lived practically in my backyard in Woodland Hills all those years I was in film school searching for role models. She's dead now, and while she was alive I had no idea she had even existed.'"

Winer continues, "Taking a break from directing an episode of Sex and the City, Anders, who has made such indie films as Sugartown, Grace of My Heart and Gas Food Lodging, says: 'I've seen men who can't direct their way out of a paper bag make a film that bombs, and they turn around and get a huge studio film.... When our movies don't [succeed], we don't get a chance to make a second movie.' 

"Most of the filmmakers interviewed for this story tell the same tale. In a town based on the buddy system, where socializing and work are intertwined, executives prefer to hire friends who can go with them on rafting trips and to Lakers games. 

"Male directors who haven't had a hit in 20 years continue to get work, while most women drop off the radar after one flop. Faced with the prospect of a client's decreased earning potential, agents rapidly lose interest. The result is that many talented women don't get a chance to learn their craft and build a [career] over time." 

Noting the influence of expectations on women, director Radha Bharadwaj has recalled, "I was criticized as an ethnic woman making a film about abuse in the West ["Closet Land"]... Every time a woman does something new, it is seen as 'for the first time.''' 

Differences in language styles affect perceptions. Studies of two-party conversations show when both people are the same gender, there are relatively few interruptions, but when a man converses with a woman there are many intrusions, with around ninety-six percent involving the man interrupting the woman. 

Also, according to research by linguists such as Dr. Deborah Tannen, men may hear women as tentative, uncertain, uninformed, even weak and self-deprecating, because of certain speech styles which have been more common for women, such as using a rising inflection at the end of sentences, or expressing commands in the form of requests. 

Using tag questions such as "Don't you think?" at the end of statements, and using qualifiers like "kinda" when making statements, tend to dilute perceived confidence. 

Emma Thompson once said of the reactions to her British TV comedy series, "A lot of the criticism, much of it written by men, had a very strange kind of edge to it. They would just say, 'No, I think you're marvelous, but you just can't do that.' They think I should be attractive, do serious drama; they're threatened by a moderately good-looking woman who tries to be funny as well...We are taught to take women only on a very few levels." 

We don't have much real experience with women in power in this country, though leaders such as Hillary Clinton and other women achieving influential positions are changing that. 

Writer Antonia Frazier has noted, "Almost every culture throughout history has had its warrior queen or queens, either in fact or in fiction or in some combination of them both. The United States... is so far one of the significant exceptions." 

Producer/director Lili Fini Zanuck notes that we as a culture haven't decided what a heroic woman role model is really like, that most of our heroes have carried guns, and that we need more of the larger-than-life female roles of earlier films: "We used to go to movies to admire men and women...in the '70s we decided they could be like the guys and girls next door. But a few like Redford remained as Romantic Heroes. I wish we still did that with women. Our idea to come off that pedestal wasn't the smartest." 

Women have developed many strategies for dealing with the prejudices and confining attitudes. Sharon Stone commented on one aspect of her approach: "It's a very male-dominated business, movie-making, so it behooves me to behave from the male side of my personality, playing by men's rules to do men's work. And when I go back to my acting, then I can be whole in my femininity." 

Actress Cheryl Miller says she loves competition, "not the kind that hurts another person, but we are always auditioning and you learn that competition is a fun game." But she also warns: "It's considered not feminine to be intelligent. Whenever I speak, people are shocked, and then they're threatened, and I'm perceived as being too strong, and so forth." 

Robin Wright Penn  found that even a highly successful and acclaimed film didn't result in a real shift in power for her. 

"The success of ['Forrest Gump'] hasn't really changed anything for me" she noted in an interview [Buzz, 1995]. "I mean, I get more phone calls, that kind of stuff. It widens the door a little bit, and I'm really flattered by it, but to me it's kind of the flavor-of-the-month syndrome. You know, it lasts a couple of months and then they go, 'Robin who? Oh yeah, that chick in Forrest Gump? Whatever happened to her, anyway?' 

"It's weird. It's like there's a bus you're supposed to hop on that takes you to point A. Then you're supposed to get on this train, which takes you to the jet. And if you don't climb aboard the jet, then I guess you don't get to that place of power as fast. 

"I'm sure if I had done some of the movies I passed on, like Robin Hood or Batman Forever, I'd probably be in that place of power, at least more than I am now. I mean, it's been said to me in so many words: 'If you do this movie, you'll have more power.'

"But a lot of times that so-called investment in power ends up blowing up in your face. And right now, I feel like doing what I'm doing for a while. I don't want to rush into things and go too fast and burn myself out. And I don't want it to become about commanding a salary. It really has to be about the work more than anything else. If the rest comes with it, that's fine, but I'm not going to hold my breath." 

Gloria Goldsmith, a writer and producer, and member of the USC Institute for the Study of Women and Men, considers this an industry "driven by young male executives frightened of, and hostile to, intelligent women. That's why we're seeing those denigrating female images up there on the screen."

Director Mary Lambert has noted, "When someone knows what they want...it intimidates people. Most people in my business are insecure...meeting somebody who knows what she wants makes them uncomfortable." 

Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing has commented, "When I first got the job at Fox [as head of production, in 1980], a bunch of women took me out and said, 'You have to succeed, or you'll let us women down.' Then one woman said, 'Wait a minute, men have been failing at this job for years!' ... 

"You can't think about such external pressures [like gender issues]. You think of the work you have to do and the movies that you are making. That is the only legacy you will have because movies will live on forever and everything else will fade." [Hollywood Reporter, Dec.99] 

In her book "They Say You're Crazy..." Dr. Paula Caplan suggests a new category of mental dysfunction, Delusional Dominating Personality Disorder, that may fit a number of men in positions of power in the film community. 

Characteristics may include: 

"Inability to establish and maintain meaningful interpersonal relationships; Inability to identify and express a range of feelings in oneself (typically accompanied by an inability to identify accurately the feelings of other people; Tendency to use power, silence, withdrawal, and/or avoidance rather than negotiation in the face of interpersonal conflict or difficulty; Adoption of gender-specific locus of control (belief that women are responsible for the bad things that happen to oneself, and the good things are due to one's own abilities, achievements, or efforts); Excessive need to inflate the importance and achievements of oneself, males in general, or both -- often associated with a need to deflate the importance of one's intimate female partner, females in general, or both."

Media can support or trivialize projects and people. What is really being communicated when a film is identified as "a good woman's story"? A seemingly positive label may have negative connotations. Actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, commenting on one description of women's roles, said "I think 'smart' is an insult to other women; I mean what do (the others) portray?" 

A recent film review included comments about "the conventions of the thriller genre... including the smart female officer who's around for window dressing and romantic relief"; how well can an actress really be perceived as a competent professional when portraying characters labeled as "window dressing" or worse? 

An issue of one of the major trade papers referred to Beth Sullivan as "a writer on 'Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,'" even though she is the creator and executive producer of the successful series. In many cases film guides and print ads list male stars, without mentioning actresses, even in lead roles. 

Depictions can be distorting. Commenting on print images of Kim Novak, the portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh said, "the clippings lied. They made her out to be just another stereotyped glamour girl. It is remarkable how misleading this is. She has great sensitivity. She's warm, human. I think she has been misrepresented, caricatured." 

Another form of demeaning and disempowering behavior toward women is sexual abuse. According to an LA Times story, women in entertainment are more vulnerable to sexual harassment than in other industries. The AWNY study mentioned earlier indicated 35% of the professional women polled had some personal experience with sexual harassment, though most of them didn't officially report it. 

Director of photography Karen Bean has related how, when working as a gaffer, she had to confront an above the line male, in a position of authority on the project, finally saying, "You're not paying me enough to move lights, much less sleep with you"; though it cost her a job, she reported that she gained more integrity and self-respect, both crucial elements in personal power and achievement. 

In their book "Women in Power", authors Dorothy Cantor and Toni Bernay talk about the fact that many women fear or loathe and reject power as part of themselves or their self-images, equating it with positions used to control or abuse. Many women in entertainment fields may not have a power title, or an elite parking space, but still do in fact really accomplish. 

Power can be nebulous, and it gets expressed in many ways. Television and film writers Jennie Blackton and Joan Desberg Greenberg, with credits including Maude and Roseanne, said "It took three secretaries yelling 'Take it' from the outer office to sell male producers on the impact of our 'One Day At A Time' script about character Ann Romero's thirty-fifth birthday. The men couldn't believe turning 35 would be that important to a woman." 

Especially in the film industry, with its obsession about looks, women are under pressure to fit some standard of appearance in order to gain power and success. As Sara Duvall, one of the four women partners of Electric Shadow Productions, which brought to life Fried Green Tomatoes, observes, "I don't know how any girl growing up in America can avoid the attitude - thrown in her face - that her status depends on her attractiveness, not her achievement." 

Callie Khouri, screenwriter of Thelma & Louise, has commented on another perspective: "Hollywood is trying to resexualize its women back into submission. This whole idea that women are powerful because they're sexy is a crock. Sex isn't power. Money is power. But the women who do best in this society are the ones who are the most complacent in the role of women as sexual commodity." 

The issue is not how anyone chooses to look or dress, but how freely that choice is made, and the consequences for personal integrity and esteem. 

As Naomi Wolf has expressed it, "The point is not whether we should wear makeup or bare our bodies, but why we do...As we move into a time when women have real power, real representation in government, a thriving women's movement, then we are at the beginning of laying claim to our own sexuality, decoration and worship...When we have equal rights, lipstick will just be lipstick." 

With another perspective on sexuality and power, screenwriter Gina Wendkos has declared her film "Coyote Ugly" (with female bartenders dancing for tips from male customers) is an example of empowerment, not exploitation. 

"The girl that owns the bar, Lil [portrayed by Maria Bello - photo], she's so full of force, personal force," Wendkos said in an interview [LA Times Aug.8.00.] "And all the girls are sexy, they're hot, but they're not objects of sexuality. They are sexuality." 

She also commented, "These women are not fragile. That's why I hate political correctness, because it strips women of their power. Like [women are] gentle creatures that need all this protection. I think PC is ruinous for women." 

Self-defined identity is probably one of the most significant aspect of developing personal power. Michelle Pfeiffer recently commented, "Fortunately, our value is not determined by our culture, but by ourselves." 

Radha Bharadwaj has noted the importance of titles to getting control and power: "Calling myself producer as well as director gave me wings... The title is a big thing; don't trust someone who wants to deprive you of a title that is your due." 

But even with the titles, the power, or a sense of authority, may not be present. As Barbra Streisand has admitted, "I still don't think of myself as powerful. I'm saying, look, everything I do is still a struggle... I couldn't sell 'The Prince of Tides' to any studio. I had to give up all my percentage points. So I do not perceive myself as this powerful person." 

Jungian Analyst and writer June Singer considers that many women are now making choices to pursue careers in a very stratified society that places a high premium on individuality, and rewards with positions of power those who successfully forge a strong personal identity. 

But there is also risk, perhaps especially for women, of experiencing a conflict between such positions and deeply respected interpersonal and relationship values. However, as she explains, this conflict "can be healed only by a recognition of our own limitations...by accepting ourselves as we really are... the personal identity that is so precious to us is not something we can hold onto and possess once and for all. Our nature is dynamic and growing, everchanging." 

A Senior Vice President at Universal Pictures, and President of Women in Film (Los Angeles), among a number of other creative and leadership roles, Hollace Davids has admitted to experiencing these kinds of career vs personal conflicts: "I've always had to battle the feeling that I should be home when I'm at work and vice versa," she said in a magazine interview. 

"It's really helped that my husband works at home and is a supportive partner. He's the one who'd take the kids to the dentist, and during spring break, which is Academy Awards time, he'd take the kids on a vacation. ... If they tell you that you can have it all, don't believe it. You can do many things, but not without compromise. There just isn't enough time in the day to do everything 100 percent. I've tried not to get swept up in putting value on the wrong things -- the big house, the new car. A good family life is more important than a new car."

Perhaps the most valid and enduring source of power for anyone is internal and spiritual, rather than material and external. One definition of power is the capacity to effectively pursue and accomplish personal vision. 

A number of articulate actresses have commented on the need to be sensitive to actions that can dilute spiritual strength and creativity. Kim Novak has said "The one thing you must fight in Hollywood is the constant pressure placed upon you from within the industry to conform to its current way of thinking. This can kill all desire to improve, to experiment." Even being successful itself may do the same; it can dull your drive, your beliefs and your fight to keep changing and redefining visions. 

Another facet of this is the value put on other's opinions. Actress Bibi Andersson, talking about some of her relationship with director Ingmar Bergman, said "we shouldn't give too much power to other people. Then they become dangerous... We shouldn't create monuments out of other people." 

Even the most gifted and seemingly potent artists may at times give power to others. Steven Spielberg was so impressed with Yentl he exclaimed to star and director Barbra Streisand, "Don't change a frame!" 

But after a major newspaper story reported only that he had "given her advice", she recently revealed: "I was so devastated by what they did, by how they tried to diminish me as a woman, that I did not direct a movie for eight years." 

Women are achieving more, and higher, positions of power in film. One example: Michelle Manning, President of Production at Paramount. She commented in an article [Hollywood Reporter, Dec, 1999] that gender has not been a particular issue in her career, and noted that her studio is run by another woman, Sherry Lansing. Having experience as a director and producer, Manning is known as a leader who supports other's creative vision. 

Jodie Foster commented about her, "Michelle has the perfect shizophrenic personality for Hollywood: a creative side and a sophisticated business sense... [She] is very clear about how she feels. She'll tell you exactly what she thinks about your project and how it stands with the studio. That's a very rare quality in a town that's risk-adverse, with decisions being made on popular opinion." 

Columbia Pictures President Amy Pascal has said being in an executive leadership position like hers "really suits the female temperament, because it's about compromise. It's about being in the background. It's about having other people stand out in front." 

But, she added, "Women aren't owners. There is no female Michael Eisner or Ted Turner. There're no women power brokers, buying and selling companies... really running companies. Not yet. That'll be the next big thing." (Premiere, Women in Hollywood issue, 1999) 

Barbra Streisand has noted women "are a remarkable breed...we contain the power of the feminine. Intuition, a deep wisdom. Nature designed us to be creators, to give life. I think we have an obligation to reflect that in our work. Speaking for myself, I feel a deep commitment to making films about positive transformations and the unlimited potential for human growth." 

Author Linda Seger (based on researching her book "When Women Call The Shots") has found "women generally don't want power in the traditional way, such as wanting power over others. Many women are highly uncomfortable with the word power. But, that doesn't mean they don't want to be in leadership positions. Power with people, not over people is what I heard. Women want to serve as a catalyst, they don't want to use power to put down people, or power to bypass how someone feels, and steamroller their decisions through. 

"Women recognize that they have a great deal to offer. I observed that there wasn't much ego in all of this. They aren't doing this for ego, fame, or for money. Those are not the motivating factors. These women have stories to tell, something to say, issues to be dealt with. They wanted the opportunity to do the work and have their work valued in the same way as a man's work of equal quality." 

Being an effective director is one example of Seger's reference to "Power with people" and has been described by Sandra Bullock about her "28 Days" director Betty Thomas: "The one thing I have to say about Betty is that I wish I had met her at the beginning of my career," Bullock said.

"Because the dynamic of what you can expect from yourself or expect from work [in general] would have been vastly improved for me. .. She commands people's respect, and her inspiration and dedication, the work that she does and the homework that she does on a nightly basis was astounding to me." [Entertainment Today, 4.14-20.2000] 

Allison Anders has commented, "The only place for women directors in this system is to not have personal vision; to do very big-budget romantic comedies or broad comedies. Even someone like Kathryn Bigelow ('Strange Days') has a monstrously difficult time making a film she wants to make because she's a woman with a very big vision, and a very expensive vision, usually." 

She went on to say, in the same article ["Female Persuasion"], "It's just such an awful, unfortunate thing that I love making movies so much. It's kind of like my penchant for failed romances... It's like, Why did I do this again? Because it's miserable for me in some ways, but .. I think I have a different attitude now. 

"I think my expectations have changed dramatically to the point where I've gotten to this very pure place of knowing that this seems to be my calling. Filmmakers just have to do it regardless of [the obstacles]. Originally I had such an intense need for approval, and I don't have that anymore."

Perhaps ultimately, real power is in being at home with yourself, and in really knowing who you are. Kathleen Noble, Ph.D., a Professor at the University of Washington who works with gifted adolescents and women, says, "in order to take one's own life seriously, which includes making decisions about how that life is going to unfold... you have to see life as a deliberate quest. The starting point is always self-awareness."

Oprah has included on her show examples of women finding that kind of awareness, and making that quest. She once exclaimed [health.org article], "Girl Power! is... being able to say 'I'm proud of the woman I've grown to be.'" 

Linguist Deborah Tannen has commented about her influence and personal power, "Girls' and women's friendships are often built on trading secrets. Winfrey's power is that she tells her own, divulging that she once ate a package of hot-dog buns drenched in maple syrup, that she had smoked cocaine, even that she had been raped as a child. With Winfrey, the talk show became more immediate, more confessional, more personal."

Director Allison Anders has also commented [personal interview], "Most women filmmakers I know who are really achieving some success, and have their own vision, are very lonely women... Because for one thing, we've never quite figured out how to abuse our power."

Speaking about the many women in entertainment she interviewed for her book Women Who Run The Show..., Mollie Gregory notes on her website that "the challenges you related, the solutions you found, your joy in the work resonate for women everywhere. ... When I talk about the choices you made, the challenges you met, heads nod. ... Women don't have to be anywhere near Hollywood to understand."

Hopefully as more women both inside and outside the entertainment industry gain power, society will increasingly benefit from film and television stories with more female characters like Erin Brockovich: women of passion and complexity and intelligence. Like women in real life. 

   ~ ~ ~ ~

Men have built the cities, made and defined the culture, interpreted the world. At no time in recorded history have women been culture-makers.  Movies are arguably the most influential, important medium in the world. Because women are now making movies, then women's ideas, philosophy, point of view will seep into that culture. And that's never happened in history. We can't even see the impact of that yet.    producer Laura Ziskin

~ ~ ~

> sources:

Laura Ziskin quote from Women Who Run the Show: How A Brilliant and Creative New Generation of Women Stormed Hollywood, 1973 - 2000 - by Mollie Gregory

Elizabeth Guider column: Where is the woman's touch?, Variety, Jun. 8, 2003

Ida Lupino bio by Ally Acker from Reel Women site

Kim Basinger: Madison magazine, May-June.2000

Hollace Davids - Working Mother magazine workingwoman.com December 2000/January 2001; 
   photo from Women in Film

Kathleen Noble: personal interview

Deborah Tannen quote from Oprah Winfrey profile: time.com

Mollie Gregory quote from reviews page of molliegregory.com

  related articles:
 

A Few More Good Women by Douglas Eby 
Women have been making significant technical and creative contributions to film and television production since the beginning. Academy Awards have been achieved by women since the 1940's for editing, art direction, sound, special visual effects and costume design...

The Company of Women  by Douglas Eby
Many actresses and other gifted women say they have found an all girls school or a primarily female film set provides a kind of safety and comfort that is releasing, that helps enhance their talents.

Get Reel! Feminists Refocus Film by Molly Haskell

Gifted Women: Identity and Expression  by Douglas Eby
Gifted women have vital and unique contributions to make in so many fields, but may need to more fully acknowledge whatever stands in the way of that expression.

H'wood femme toppers club defies stereotypes by Linda Seger and Mollie Gregory
For women executives, how far is far? Not far enough, although the last 30 years have seen real changes... But old habits persist.

The industry women on the side  by Laurie Winer  [Los Angeles mag., Sept, 2000]

Women Of Talent - Power and Leadership  by Douglas Eby

Women on the verge  by Linda Seger
"In recent years, there has been a movement afoot in Hollywood. Women actors, tired of playing the wimpy roles as girlfriend or wife and equally tired of being paid a pittance in comparison with the megamillions their male counterparts were making, have begun to demand--and get--juicier roles and more money. This push for more power and stronger roles mirrors what is going on behind the scenes in Hollywood as well."
 

~ ~ ~

Related pages: leadership & power.....identity

~ ~ ~ 

interviews: .....Kathleen Noble.......Linda Seger

   ...books:

Rachel Abramowitz. Is That a Gun in Your Pocket: Women's Experience of Power in Hollywood  --  [msnbc.com/news review:] "Abramowitz has covered Hollywood for the last decade and spent seven years conducting interviews for this book... dozens of agents, directors, actors and producers.. Key Hollywood players tell the stories behind Barbra Streisand's struggles on the set of "A Star is Born," Jodie Foster's experience playing a prostitute in "Taxi Driver," Penny Marshall's battles with Whoopi Goldberg on the set of "Jumping Jack Flash," and Sherry Lansing's odyssey from Max Factor model to chairman at Paramount. Abramowitz also fills us in on which up-and-coming women we should watch for in Hollywood."

Jane Alexander. Command Performance: An Actress in the Theater of Politics 
"Alexander had attended her share of protest marches in the 1960s and 1970s, but she had never been involved in mainstream politics and was happily engaged in her acting career when she was asked to consider becoming head of the ever-embattled National Endowment for the Arts. This witty, entertaining account of her tenure there brings a Washington outsider's perspective and an actor's eye for the telling human detail to the often stultifying subject of bureaucratic politics."

Cari Beauchamp. Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood [The New York Times Book Review, Lynda Obst:]  "Archeologists in Kazakhstan recently dug up ancient females, buried with swords and shields, and speculated that perhaps these were the remains of the woman warriors of legend, the Amazons. The almost subversive thrill of this discovery is like what I felt after reading about Frances Marion and her female friends, an accomplished clique of powerful screenwriters, actresses, producers and directors who prospered within the inner sanctum of earliest Hollywood. Seventy years ago, these highly paid professionals were thriving in the movie business. That their professional descendants knew nothing of their struggles and triumphs is remarkable. Actually, remarkably sad ... This richly researched excavation of complex lives--an almost scholarly tome (as scholarly as good movie gossip gets)--reaches no overarching conclusions and has (thankfully) little dogma and no real axes to grind. But it is a revelation to those of us who came later."

Louise Brooks. Lulu in Hollywood
"Louise Brooks (1906-1985) is one of the most famous actresses of the silent era, renowned as much for her rebellion against the Hollywood system as for her performances in such influential films as Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. Eight autobiographical essays by Brooks, on topics ranging from her childhood in Kansas and her early days as a Denishawn and Ziegfeld Follies dancer to her friendships with Martha Graham, Charles Chaplin, W. C. Fields, Humphrey Bogart, William Paley, G. W. Pabst, and others are collected here."

Dorothy Cantor and Toni Bernay. Women in Power: The Secrets of Leadership

Paula Caplan. They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful 
Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal  [interview]

Mollie Gregory. Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation of Women Stormed Hollywood, 1973-2000
Documentary film producer and director Gregory interviews over 100 powerful women who've made their mark in film in this hefty book. She organizes it by decade; thus, the 1970s chapter is called "Beachhead," the '80s is "Securing the Perimeter" and the '90s is "Breakthrough." She investigates the barriers women like The Sting producer Julia Phillips came up against and lauds the accomplishments of Mimi Leder, who directed The Peacemaker. Dense and very thorough. [from Publishers Weekly review]

Molly Haskell. From Reverence to Rape : The Treatment of Women in the Movies

Molly Haskell. Holding My Own in No Man's Land : Women and Men and Film and Feminists

Mick Lasalle. Complicated Women : Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood -- [Kirkus Reviews:] An overdue tribute to the myriad of strong and independent women film stars of pre-Code Hollywood (1929-34)... LaSalle argues cogently that the Code more dangerously demanded an adherence to conservative and rigid gender roles. Pre-Code films, he points out, were filled with self-reliant, intelligent, and sexually independent women. This was a period dominated by powerful female stars-Mae West, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Myrna Loy, Claudette Colbert, Jean Harlow-whose power and talent were undermined by a Code that made impossible all but the most chaste and wifely female roles.

Lynda Obst. Hello, He Lied : And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches

Linda Seger. Web Thinking: Connecting, Not Competing, for Success

Linda Seger. When Women Call the Shots: The Developing Power and Influence of Women in Television and Film

Deborah Tannen. Talking from 9 to 5 : Women and Men in the Workplace : Language, Sex, and Power  -- "Explains how conversation rituals between men and women differ and how such unconscious barriers result in unnoticed and unappreciated efforts, and offers guidelines to establishing more rewarding professional relationships."
 

videos:

Louise Brooks: Looking For Lulu

A&E Biography - Ida Lupino

Myrna Loy: A Class By Herself

~ ~ ~

  

creativity enhancement articles

article topics index

~ ~ ~