Biases

The Reporter tells us:

The American Civil Liberties Union is calling on people in Hollywood, via an email on Thursday, to sign a petition urging the government to investigate and monitor the industry's "biased hiring practices."

The ACLU is also hoping that key industry organizations will join them in circulating information about the petition, which is posted online.

"By signing it, industry professionals will tell three government civil rights agencies (1) that gender bias against women directors in film and television is real and has gone on for far too long and (2) investigation and oversight from civil rights enforcement agencies to foster reform of the industry’s biased hiring practices would be a welcome step." ...

"We believe that the failure to hire women directors and give them a fair opportunity to succeed in the field is a civil rights issue. This is why the ACLU Women’s Rights Project and the ACLU of Southern California have a campaign demanding that our government launch an investigation into the systemic failure to hire women directors at all levels of the film and TV industry ​in violation of state and federal civil rights laws."

Age and sex discrimination are not new issues in the Town of Tinsel. A dozen years ago, a rep of the Cinematographers Guild told me how directors of photography died their hair and got face-lifts to remain employable. These folks, unsurprisingly, were men.

But the lack of women in key artistic positions? That issue was covered here Monday. Apologists will say that women just don't want creative jobs, but it's hard to square that with more women working in key artistic positions during the teens and twenties of the last century than in 2015.

There might be some rhyme to it. But it's hard to discern any coherent reasons.