Cannes Fallout: Expert Says Hollywood Lacks Gender Diversity

The 2012 Cannes Film Festival has just begun, but much of the buzz has little to do with the films being screened.

Instead, the chatter is about the lack of female representation behind the camera at the tony film gala. And it isn’t a problem relegated to the French-based festival. It’s systemic, according to Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.

“I just don’t think that Hollywood views this as an issue. I don’t think that large portions of the filmmaking community view the utter lack of diversity as a problem. If it’s not a problem, there’s no need to fix anything,” says Lauzen in a statement released today.

The Director’s Guild of America’s Women’s Steering Committee issued Lauzen’s comments along with the following information: 

The numbers are so striking that even the most hardened skeptic must now stop and take note. Women are badly under-represented as directors of film and TV, while media is arguably America’s most culturally influential export around the globe.

In the film industry, however, the ratio of male-to-female working directors is more dismal than ever before, and the ratios certainly do not come close to reflecting the fact that women make up fifty-three percent of the population and a similar percentage of film school graduates.

Note: An earlier post incorrectly identified Lauren as a member of the Director’s Guild of America.