In some ways, 2017 was a groundbreaking year for women in the film industry. Wonder Woman became the highest grossing live-action film of 2017 and Patty Jenkins broke records with the largest opening weekend for a female director. Shows with strong female protagonists emerged like The Handmaid’s Tale and Little Big Lies, as well as Tiffany Haddish becoming the first black female stand up comic to host SNL.

In addition, the film industry became a safer space for women, as more women were enabled to speak out against abusers and defend themselves. However, the film industry still remains a misogynistic place for women to work. Unrealistic body standards for female actors, lack of representation, and the objectification of female characters are still prevalent issues in the industry today.

This is in part due to the lack of female directors in Hollywood. This issue often goes unnoticed, because the lack of female representation has become an accepted part of the film industry. Few women are given opportunities to direct movies with large budgets and women are often discouraged from going into the film industry.

The reason this matters is because film is largely influential in making, or breaking, stereotypes in today’s society. Fewer films directed by women mean fewer strong female roles and less representation. For example, take the two movies Wonder Woman and Justice League. Wonder Woman was directed by Patty Jenkins, and featured many strong female leads, like Diana Prince, Antiope, Hippolyta and the Amazons. These female leads were portrayed as warriors and defied traditional female beauty standards, having an athletic build and wearing conservative armor designed to protect, not to show off their bodies.

Compared to Justice League, a movie directed by  Zack Synder, Wonder Woman offers more representation of strong, independent women who can defend themselves. In Justice League, the only independent female character was Wonder Woman, while the other female characters were Lois Lane, a character whose role is almost entirely dependent on the actions of Superman, and Superman’s mother, another character whose existence is reliant on a male character.

Why is this important? This is important because representation in the media impacts worldviews and societal perception. A young girl watching movies with strong female characters is more likely to be empowered to be independent than a young girl watching movies with female characters reliant on men.

In addition, female characters are not as diverse in personality or appearance as male characters. Emotional female characters are often portrayed as weaker than men and less rational, which contributes to the negative societal stereotype of women. In addition, women in authoritative roles in movies are shown to be colder and less emotional, which tells girls that in order to be taken seriously or to command respect, you must be emotionless.

This is partly due to the fact that the large majority of influential films are directed by men and results in the stories of women being told by men. Unfortunately, female directors often need to prove themselves over and over again, while men are given the benefit of the doubt.