The American Civil Liberties Union thinks it's about time there were more women in Hollywood. The organization is formally accusing the film industry of excluding female directors through biased hiring practices, Variety reports.
We've covered what it's like to be a woman director in the boys' club of the film industry before, and things haven't gotten any better. The ACLU is asking for state and federal investigations into major studios, networks, and talent agencies. The organization argues that their recruiting and hiring practices are a violation of civil rights, according to Variety.
One ways that the ACLU investigated the gender gap in Hollywood was by interviewing 50 women directors about their experiences in the industry. From Variety:
The organization also collected stories from 50 female directors whose agents had been told by producers to “not send women” for prospective jobs or who were personally told “we already hired a woman this season” when vying for television gigs.
The ACLU wrote letters (published by the New York Times) detailing the barriers to employment that women in Hollywood face to U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a few California agencies:
“Real change is needed to address this entrenched and long-running problem of discrimination against women directors,” one of the letters reads. “External investigations and oversight by government entities tasked with enforcing civil rights laws is necessary to effectuate this change.”
It's not known at this time if any legal agency will formally investigate Hollywood for the ACLU's charges.
