Why Female Directors Are a Rare Sight

The media in general is dominated by males so a lack of women directors is not much of a suprise. A variety of actors and (especially) actresses have wished to work with more women directors as it would be a change and the actresses feel as though men do not know how to represent women properly. The reasons behind the lack of women directors are...

One reason is because of the prehistoric times when the men used to carry the equipment because it was too heavy for women as men are physically stronger than women in most cases. The equipment would of needed around 100 to 150 large men to carry therefore, a hierachy was built upon this and females were seen as useless. Although this weight of equipment is no longer a problem the hierachy still exists and women still find it difficult to break into directing.

Another reason is womens role in a household. Women have to take care of their children while the men go off and work leaving women unable to direct. Although this is starting to change in society and males are sharing this role ("the new man") it has to continue in order for women to find the time to direct a film.

Film is such a male-dominated industry. There is alot of "who you know" in terms of how you get promoted. the whole way the business is constructed means there are just men at every level which makes it really hard for women to get into.

Having children also causes women to not succeed in the film industry and become directors. This is because directing asks for your all and expects you to sacrifice all of your time so that you can spend it on the project. Having a child makes it all the more difficult but this can also fixed by males taking on more a househusband role.

The last and the most obvious reason is that men control the money in the world. Therefore, they are going to decide who to give the money to and unfortunately it is not the women hence the lack of female directors.