The Importance of Supporting Women Led Media

Back in 2015, Time published some numbers about women in media. Those numbers are about as comforting as you would expect.

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Back in 2015, Time published some numbers about women in media. Those numbers are about as comforting as you would expect, and not much has changed in the year that’s passed. Some numbers may have gone up while others may have fallen but there’s one thing that’s for sure: Those figures aren’t going to change in a real, quantifiable way if we don’t start doing something about it.

When Agent Carter was cancelled back in May, fans were obviously heartbroken. Like people often do, fans made their way to twitter to discuss the cancellation, and while understandably upset, a comment that kept coming up was ‘I was really excited for it, I just never got around to watching it!’ or something of a similar voice.

The same can be said for Ghostbusters. While the film had some objectively flawed moments, it was overall a great movie with even better messages to women both young and old. Despite the vitriol it received online, a large amount of hype acted as a counter balance, and yet here we sit at almost a $50m loss. If you ask around your friends, I’m willing to bet there will be more than one saying the same thing so many did about Agent Carter.

It’s great that people are excited about these things, and it’s even better that they’re talking about them! Unfortunately, words aren’t dollars, and the people bankrolling these endeavors are corporations. Everyone can scream with excitement until they’re blue in the face, but that doesn’t convince an executive to take a chance on a female led, produced, or written script if we’re not delivering the numbers to back that excitement up.

That brings us to the million dollar question: What can be done to change this? There are some obvious answers. We can follow through with that excitement and go see the film, read the book, watch the show, and so on, but I was given some creative answers on this topic from people over on social media as well. Here are some other great ideas–

• Specifically seek out female led projects, regardless of medium. Support lady screenwriters, EPs, authors, actresses, grips, whatever! Help encourage women to get involved in the industry.
• When moderating programs or panels, be sure to have a gender parity.
• Talk about the media! Whether it be a movie, show, book, or any other form, get it buzzing online. Live tweet, write about it, tell your friends, and spread the word!
• Make the active choice to NOT to support media that pits women against each other.
• Get men involved in the conversation! Ladies supporting ladies is tremendous, but we’re not the only people who consume this stuff. Help get the guys just as excited as we are, and get them talking about it too!

All of this boils down to one thing—If we want media led by women, we have to start putting our money where our mouths are. The examples above aren’t the first lady led projects to get cancelled or flop in the box office, and unfortunately they won’t be the last. Not if we don’t start showing executives just how lucrative they can be.

We’re women. We’re always going to be swimming upstream. Most of us are aware of this by now. Maybe if we all swim together, though, we can help change the current.

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What are some creative ways that you support women in media?  Tweet them our way @CulturessFS or sound off in the comments.