Women Behind The Camera

While writing my junior theme about the lack of women directors, a statistic i found interesting was how many females are directing documentaries. In one article, it said the ratio of men to women was nearly fifty percent (Silverstein). This made me wonder - why are there so many more women directing documentaries, but then if you look at the number of women directing feature films, they barely make up ten percent? While interviewing Maria Finitzo, one of the many women creating documentaries, she said that "perhaps that is because you don’t make any money directing documentaries, and so the men go for narrative directing." 

This is a valid point, that for the most part, documentaries make less money than top box office hit films, especially in a world where money seems to dominate and is one of the main focuses in many people's lives. Most people want to do something they love, while making a sufficient amount of money - that is the perfect job - but if your passion is directing, wouldn't you much rather direct a movie where you make more money? Most people would answer yes to that question. But for women, where directing is not an easy thing, documentaries can get them much more work opportunities.


But is money the only reason? It's been a question for years, and researchers have found hundreds of statistics, but never a solution to this problem. But what is there to do to fix it?