Roles for women in film and television at a standstill

By Ryan Adams

 

In the male-dominated world of film and television, there appears to be little room for strong female leads, but that could be changing.

In a survey done by www.indiewire.com it was shown that women represented only 30 per cent of all speaking roles in the top 100 grossing movies of 2014 and only 13 per cent of those roles being female leaders onscreen.

Males on the other hand were heavily identified with work-related roles such as businessmen or a medical profession in the same survey, while females were more identified by their social life, in roles as a housewife or mother.

Sarah Booth has been acting for 10 years and said these numbers made sense to her, but that roles for women in the industry are on the rise, especially in the independent film market.

“Most of the projects are created and written by men so it’s very male driven.  That number makes sense to me,” said the Montreal born actress. “But I think there are more projects for women, about women, created by women.  Having independent and online avenues…gives more creators a chance to make their own projects.”

Booth is no stranger to the film and television business having starred in female lead roles before, including the Windsor filmed horror movie The Scarehouse as well as The Hat Goes Wild.  She is also currently part of the cast in season two of The SyFy Network’s Helix.

The Scarehouse star credits women like Lena Dunham and Reese Witherspoon for taking on brave roles and producing their own projects for how she wants to approach her career.

“Bold decisions by bold female actors and writers are changing what will work with audiences all the time,” said Booth.

Patricia Arquette, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for last year’s Boyhood, used her time during her acceptance speech to bring up the issue of wage inequality for all women.

“It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America,” said Arquette.

Layan Barakat, a 25-year-old communications student at the University of Windsor, agrees with Arquette on the issue but said it does not stop at the film industry.

“I absolutely agree, especially after the Sony hacking scandal, exposing that women in the industry earn far less than men for the same amount of work,” said Barakat. “As someone who will soon be entering the work force, I have been exploring job opportunities, I discovered that women in the field I’m interested in make significantly less than men.”

Barakat is hoping Arquette’s speech will make people more aware of the issues of wage inequality.

Barakat also said even though there are wage differences, she has seen an evolution in the way women are being portrayed on film and TV and that age discrepancies are becoming less of an issue.

“As much as I enjoy watching old movies, I find those women characters to be very one-dimensional,” said Barakat. “Women on movies and TV nowadays have much more depth, for example Jennifer Lawrence in the Hunger Games series.”

While Windsor teacher Christina Lori admits she is not very aware of any female lead characters who motivated her or that she has looked up to, she says it is still important for women to represent strength.

“I don’t remember ever seeing a woman on TV in a lead role and wanting to be her,” said the 24-year-old. “But that’s not to say that it is not important for women to be in these positions.”

Lori said she was not surprised by the low number of speaking female roles in Hollywood or the wage inequalities that they suffer from.

Park House Museum in Windsor is hosting Women in Film, a lecture series that takes a look into the role of women in 20^th century film.  Each week consists of a brief discussion of the week’s topic along with a matching film.  The cost is $55 a person, which includes the four seminars, for reservations to the event email [email protected], or call 519-736-2511.