Issuu

F RI DAY, MA R C H 2 2, 2019

the womenâ€™s issue Women in Arts and Culture

ILLUSTRATION BY: EMILY SHAMBAUGH/THE HOYA

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019

THE HOYA

WOMEN IN FILM

NOTABLE ALUMNAE

MICHELLE BROWN & STEVEN BOTSOE

4-5

COVER STORY

WOMEN IN MUSIC

ABIGAIL EASTMAN

ZAIN SANDHU

6 WOMEN IN TV KIERA GERAGHTY

10 WOMEN IN COMEDY

7 REPRESENTATION

JESSICA MAKSIMOV

WOMENâ€™S ISSUE

11 WAGE GAP MYTHS

ILLUSTRATION BY: MINA LEE/THE HOYA

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019

THE HOYA

MARY JORDAN MARY JORDAN/FACEBOOK

Mary Jordan (COL ’83) has spent 14 years abroad as a foreign correspondent and Washington Post co-bureau chief in Tokyo, Mexico City and London, reporting from more than 40 countries. She has also interviewed some of the world’s most important people for the Academy of Achievement’s “What it Takes.” Jordan won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2003 for her work covering Mexico’s criminal justice system and received another nomination for the prize in 2009. Jordan has also received The Washington Post’s Eugene Meyer Award and has been recognized by organizations such as the Overseas Press Club of America and the Society of Professional Journalists.

Melanne Verveer (SLL ’66, GRD ’69) served as the first U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, a position for which former President Barack Obama nominated her. Verveer has spent her life fighting for women’s issues, working with the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and the special representative on gender issues for the OSCE chairmanship. In addition to her diplomatic work, Verveer co-founded Vital Voices Global Partnership, a nonprofit focused on investing in emerging female leaders around the globe.

TEDMED

Aimee Mullins (SFS ’98), who was born without fibular bones and had her legs amputated as an infant, learned to walk and eventually run on prosthetics. Her athleticism took her to the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta, and she was the first double amputee to competed in NCAA Division I track and field. More recently, she became the official ambassador for the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival in 2008 and was elected to represent all U.S. female athletes from 2007 to 2009 as president of the Women’s Sports Foundation.

MARGARET EDSON GOODMAN THEATRE

Margaret Edson (GRD ’92) is most known for her play “Wit,” which traces the last hours of its protagonist, a brilliant and uncompromising professor of literature who is dying of ovarian cancer. While growing up in Washington, D.C., Edson worked in the AIDS and cancer treatment wing of a local research hospital. This play went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1999, and a film adaptation of the play won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie in 2001. RESEARCH BY: DENNESE MAE JAVIER/THE HOYA, DESIGN BY: ELOISE OWEN/THE HOYA

SENECA WOMEN

TANYA ROSEN-JONES FOR OBERLIN

CARMEN TWILLIE AMBAR

Carmen Twillie Ambar (SFS ’90) is the 15th president of Oberlin College and the first black person to serve as president in the university’s 184-year history. Before her stint at Oberlin, she was president for nine years at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pa. While at Cedar Crest, she helped grow the endowment by 92 percent and further diversified the school’s student body. Her career in higher education started at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, where she worked as the assistant dean of graduate education.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

AIMEE MULLINS

MELANNE VERVEER

HELEN STEINBINDER

Helen Steinbinder (LAW ’55, GRD ’56) was not only part of the first female class at the Georgetown University Law Center to receive a Juris Doctor degree but also one of the first women to receive a Master of Law in 1956. She went on to become the first female law professor at Georgetown and acted as the faculty adviser for the flagship law review journal of the Law Center. In 1988, Steinbinder retired and became the first female professor emerita at Georgetown University.

GLORIA MACAPAGALARROYO

GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO/FACEBOOK

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (SFS ’68) served as the 14th president of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010, the second woman in the country’s history to get elected to the office. Before this, she served as the 10th vice president of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001. Arroyo ran on a platform that focused on the Philippine economy, and her presidency witnessed higher economic growth than the three presidencies that preceded hers. She has served as a member of the House of Representatives for the 2nd District of Pampanga since 2010 and now also serves as the speaker of the House of Representatives in the Philippines.

GIRL EFFECT

MARIA EITEL

Maria Eitel (GRD ’88) founded and currently serves as co-chair of the Nike Foundation, which works with communities to help alleviate poverty by increasing opportunities and investment. As co-chair, she started the program Girl Effect, a partner of the United Nations Foundation and the NoVo Foundation that helps adolescent girls end the cycle of poverty. Although she began her career as a television reporter and producer, she has held a wide range of board and advisory positions, including on the Safeco Corporation, the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Eastern Congo Initiative.

ANTONIA NOVELLO

CHANGING THE FACE OF MEDICINE

Antonia Novello, who completed her residency at Georgetown University Hospital, was the first Hispanic woman to serve as U.S. surgeon general. Her appointment came after nearly two decades of public service at the National Institutes of Health, where she helped draft legislation regarding organ transplants. As surgeon general, she highlighted health issues that face women, young people and minorities. After her tenure as surgeon general, Novello was appointed to be a special representative to the United Nations Children’s Fund from 1993 to 1996, where she raised awareness of the nutritional needs of women and children.

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019

THE HOYA

‘Women Pioneers’ Shape Hilltop for Over 50 Years ABIGAIL EASTMAN Special to The Hoya

“Tradition crumbles: College admits girls,” read The Hoya’s front page in September 1968. The headline reflected the campus climate toward Georgetown’s decision to fully become a coed campus across all four schools in 1969. Fifty years later, Georgetown’s campus is now bustling with female students, faculty and staff, but the storied journey to this environment still includes much work as we recognize women’s legacy on campus during Women’s History Month.

A RECENT HISTORY

When Georgetown opened in 1789, the university, like all higher education institutions at the time, was an all-male school. Centuries later, Georgetown became a fully coed school, but women did have a history at Georgetown before then. The first official enrollment of any woman at Georgetown was in 1880, when Jeanette Sumner and Annie Rice registered for the School of Medicine, according to university archival material. However, both women left after only one year, according to the alumni association. The next expansion of admission to women on campus came with the opening of the School of Nursing in 1903, according to university archival material.

The new school had seven applicants, all of whom were women. Upon their graduation in 1906, they were the first women to receive degrees from Georgetown. The nursing school remained an all-female school even after the acceptance of women into the College in 1969. In 1919, the School of Foreign Service was founded with the plan to have an inaugural class of 150 students — 25 of them women. These women were considered “special students” and were not regularly enrolled students. However, their status changed in 1943, when World War II led enrollment to drop among male students and the university needed additional tuition. Consequently, female students were regularly enrolled to help keep the university financially afloat. Though the transition to coeducation had already begun, Georgetown was still regarded as a male institution, so when a woman was hired to operate the Georgetown switchboard in 1938, people were shocked. “One of Washington’s last citadels of masculinity — Georgetown University — crumbled yesterday,” a headline of The Washington Times, a local paper that closed in 1939, read in June of that year. The postwar period marked an influx of women in the SFS and the Institute of Language and Linguistics. The government needed more civilian employees with for-

eign language skills, and Georgetown’s women were filling those spots, according to the SFS website. During the 1950s, women were finally allowed to enroll in the Law School and broke ground by becoming editors on the Georgetown Law Review, according to university archival materials. By 1952, women were enrolled in every Georgetown undergraduate school except the College. Of the 5,000 students on the Hilltop, 8 percent were women. In 1953, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences admitted women for the first time, according to university archival material. The 11 female graduate students, referred to as “women pioneers” were admitted “experimentally,” according to a December 1953 archived article in The Hoya. Large inequalities still existed on campus, though, as male and female student guide books from the 1960s like “Miss ‘G’ Goes to Georgetown” had concerning policies toward women, according to Leslie Miller and Sarah Poulson in “Going Coed: Women’s Experiences in Formerly Men’s Colleges and Universities.” “Personal pride is an inherent quality of the weaker sex and while clothing plays an important part in the college co-eds plans for college, it is well to remember that the ‘price’ wardrobe is not always wardrobe that is appropriate and best suited for co-eds,” Miller-Bernal and Poulson wrote from the guidebook.

THE TRANSITION

In the spring of 1968, Academic Vice President Thomas Fitzgerald presented to Georgetown’s board of directors the idea

of accepting women into the College. Once again, financial necessity was a main consideration in accepting women to offset increasing institutional costs, according to a 1995 report by Poulson. After the board of directors, faculty and male student population showed no major objections, the board voted unanimously to accept women into the incoming College freshman class in 1969, Poulson wrote. A May 1968 cartoon entitled “Surprise!” in The Hoya showed a woman in a dress popping out of a cake, surrounded by men in suits showing different faces of amusement, shock and disapproval. In a May 1968 letter to the editor published in The Hoya, Bernard Picchi (SFS ’71) said the admission of women would to the university was a threat to the quality of the university. Women “precipitate a degeneration of academic morale, class attendance, and professional hostility,” Picchi wrote. “NO! Keep women out of the College! Is nothing sacred?” Picchi, who has been on the library board for 35 years and was formerly on the board of governors, submitted the letter as satire to comment on the attitude that he was seeing among his fellow classmates. “I meant the letter as a spoof on the attitudes of TRULY crusty upperclassmen at Georgetown,” Picchi wrote in a March 20 email to The Hoya. The admittance of women to the College was so significant because of the prominence of the College at Georgetown, according to Poulson’s 1995 report.

LEFT: GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE, RIGHT: GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NURSING & HEALTH

In 1919, its inaugural year, the School of Foreign Service admitted 25 women and 125 men. With the opening of the School of Nursing in 1903, Georgetown University admitted seven female applicants, who became the first women to receive degrees from Georgetown in 1906, right.

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019

THE HOYA

THE HOYA 1968

After the board of directors approved admitted women into the College, a May 1968 cartoon in The Hoya showed a woman popping out of a cake, surrounded by men showing faces of amusement, shock and disapproval. Women first attended the College in 1969. By 1976, half of the student body was female; now, women comprise 56 percent of the student body. “The College formed the core of undergraduate education, the very identity of the University, and enrolled the majority of Georgetown’s undergraduate students,” Poulson wrote. The board of directors received over 500 female applicants and decided to admit 50 women, according to university archive material. Bernadette Tramm (CAS ’73), known as Bernadette Savard when she attended Georgetown, was a member of the first fully integrated class of men and women on the Hilltop. Despite being in the first class, she did not feel out of place, according to an interview with The Hoya. “Coming in as a freshman, you didn’t know that it hadn’t been that way, so you came in and you were just happy to be here. As a freshman with other freshmen in these spaces, it didn’t seem strange to [have] men and women together. So from that perspective, I never felt that we were out of place or treated unfairly or differently,” Tramm said in an interview with The Hoya. After women were permitted to enroll in the College, their inclusion on campus became more solidified through enrollment numbers, leadership positions and available coursework. Fifty percent of the student body was female by 1976, and Deborah Candy became the first female student body president the following year. The women’s studies program became available as a major in 1990, and Dorothy Brown became the university’s

first female provost just nine years later.

women of Georgetown. These events consist of speakers and conversations that WHERE WE ARE NOW focus on what it is like to be a woman in In 2017, 56 percent of students enrolled 2019, especially on the Hilltop. at Georgetown were women, according to GWA’s Women on the Walls exhibit U.S. News and World Report, and many opened March 14 in Hoya Court. The exinstitutional changes have occurred to hibit, curated by GWA fellow C.C. Borzilrecognize the role of women on campus leri (COL ’19), seeks to highlight the mark today. that women students, faculty and adminThe Women’s Center, which started istrators have left on Georgetown’s legain a closet in the Leavey Center in 1990, cy. now has its own office located in Leavey Artrice Valentine Bader (GRD ’66), the 327. GUWC, which first person to be serves as a resource awarded a Ph.D. in for women’s needs biology at Georgeon campus, hosts town, spoke at the events every year opening of the exfor Women’s Hishibit, along with tory Month. Tramm and Brown, This year, they reflecting on their have programmed experiences as a screening of “On women pioneers The Basis of Sex,” on the Hilltop. BERNADETTE TRAMM (CAS ’73) a talk on sexual For months, stuhealth, a trivia dents have pushed night, and the for the women’s Brave and Own It Summits, among other and gender studies program to become a events in collaboration with a number of department. partners. Gaining departmental status would Every March, the Georgetown Univer- allow for additional resources and fundsity Women’s Alliance, a group that fa- ing to the WGST program, expanding its cilitates conversations and professional reach on Georgetown’s campus. This recgrowth for women at Georgetown, joins ognition would also allow for professors the rest of the country in celebrating of the program to be eligible for tenure Women’s History Month. GWA puts on a track, which would give them higher salahost of events and programs to honor the ries and more job security and open the

“As a freshman with other freshmen in these spaces, it didn’t seem strange to [have] men and women together.”

possibility for student research. Bonnie Morris had to leave her position in the women’s and gender studies program in 2017 after 21 years because her work was not compensated enough for her to be able to afford to live in Washington, D.C. “The moral dilemma is that in the underfunded area of women’s studies, I teach the history of equal pay for equal work, while not receiving it myself,” Morris wrote in an op-ed to The Hoya. “By continuing to accept a pay rate that is not on par with those who teach less and publish less, I can no longer call myself a good feminist role model to the young women who constitute the majority of Georgetown undergraduates. As an underpaid adjunct in an underfunded program, I can no longer sit idly by.” While women continue to make their presence at and contribution to Georgetown known, many obstacles still need to be overcome. Women still do not have equal representation in faculty and administrative positions and represent only a third Georgetown’s board of directors. Tramm concedes, though, that Georgetown has made much progress since that first class. “It appears to me that we’ve moved beyond whether the women are here or equal rights and more into are they empowered or not, and really more defining who we want all people to be, all students here to be,” Tramm said.

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019

THE HOYA

Few in Number, Female Showrunners Advance TV KIERA GERAGHTY Hoya Staff Writer

When Netflix cancelled the critically acclaimed show “One Day At A Time” on March 14, the streaming site was met with thousands of outraged comments on the tweet lamenting the decision. As evidenced by a simple scroll through the replies, their choices do not exist in a vacuum, nor does cancelling a show have no further implications. The rebooted version of “One Day At A Time,” which first aired in 2017, was a show centered around a Cuban-American family, and Gloria Calderón Kellett, a woman of color, was its co-showrunner. Calderón Kellett is one of several female showrunners leading some of television’s biggest programs like “Orange is the New Black,” “Jane the Virgin,” “Empire,” “Fresh Off The Boat” and “Broad City,” to name a few. Despite these impressive outliers, though, as of a 2017 study from UCLA, “90% of showrunners are white, and 80% are male,” according to Time. When women are disproportionately outnumbered in these positions of power, the media shows fewer of the perspectives of underrepresented groups, and women as a whole have access to fewer opportunities, according to C. Nicole Mason, a professor in the women’s and gender studies program. “I think it’s really important because having women in senior roles, executive roles, makes it possible,” Mason said in an interview with Th e Hoy a . “It changes the stories that we tell, it also opens the door for other women because women who are in positions of power are connected to other women.”

“One Day At A Time” was one of only around 60 out of 400 shows to receive a ReFrame stamp, given to productions with laudable gender equity in production positions, according to the Los Angeles Times. However, the industry has caused a recent rise in demand for women of color in these executive positions, pushed in part by diverse programming from alternative platforms like Netflix, Amazon and HBO that have become significant successes, according to The New York Times. The cancelling of “One Day At A Time” becomes even more disappointing in the context of streaming platforms, which have been branded as places where the traditional mentalities of the television industry were being cast aside to feature overlooked perspectives like women of color and trans people, according to Time. Considering especially that a number of the women-driven shows like “Orange Is The New Black,” “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and “Broad City” that are currently on air will be ending in 2019, the tenuousness of progress is apparent. When the systems in place, though, have been to rigged to benefit the narrow networks of those people already in power, few women are considered qualified by the traditional definition as the current leadership ignored them for promotions, according to The New York Times. “Not enough minority women have been groomed for senior writing jobs, a function not only of the industry’s white male focus, but also of rarefied access, discrimination in promotions, and low entry-level pay,” Cara Buckley writes. These positions are necessary, though, to going on to higher positions, which can

put the few women of color who are in the room in difficult positions, according to an interview with Calderón Kellet with the Los Angeles Times. “I’d feel complacent, because I didn’t want to be the one where they’re, like, ‘Well, we tried to hire the Latina, and she was so sensitive,’” Calderón Kellet said. “I felt like I had to put up with it so that they would think we’re cool to have in a room. At the time, that’s what I felt I had to do.” Some women have been able to overcome these barriers, becoming television icons on par with many of their male counterparts. Shonda Rhimes, former showrunner for massive series like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” has been dominating the industry for years. She proves that when women hold positions of power, all women benefit.

Rhimes, a 2017 inductee to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, owns her own production company called Shondaland, which will be producing a host of new series with Netflix that put female creators and subjects at the forefront, according to CNN. Despite standouts like Rhimes, the still concerning numbers of women in leadership roles means that the question of improving the industry still remains. The only answer seems to be to flip the statistics, said Gabrielle Stanton, showrunner for “The Flash,” at a panel of female showrunners in June of 2018, according to a Los Angeles Times article. “The more of us that are running these shows, that are starring in these shows, that are making decisions about who gets hired on these shows, that’s how we’re going to make change,” Stanton said.

IMDB

Shonda Rhimes, far left, was the showrunner for “Grey’s Anatomy,” starring Ellen Pompeo. While Rhimes has had much success, challenges still exist for female showrunners. Until last week, Gloria Calderón Kellett, right, was the co-showrunner for “One Day at a Time.” The show’s cancellation brings up systemic issues in television.

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019

THE HOYA

diversity in media For the top 250 domestic grossing films, women COMPRISED:

20 % 26 % 21 % 4%

There were significantly more male characters than female characters in the top-grossing films of 2018.

of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers, which is a 2 % increase from last year. of producers

Of all speaking characters, women comprised only

21 % 8% 3

35 %

of executive producers

which was a 1 % increase from last year.

of directors, a % decrease from last year

of editors

Of all major characters, women made up only

36 %

which was a 1 % decrease from last year.

The percent of films featuring female protagonists increased to 31 percent in 2018 from 24 percent in 2017, a recent high.

of cinematographers

* This report includes 3,076 individuals working behind the scenes.

In the 2017 to 2018 television season,

68 percent of the 21 percent of programs considered programs had casts with more considered had casts male than female with more female than characters. male characters. 11 percent of programs considered had casts with equal numbers of female and male characters.

40 %

of all major % characters speaking characters on broadcast were women across all plat- network, cable and streaming forms, a 2 % decrease from programs were women, a 2 % 2016 to 2017. decrease from 2016 to 2017.

of all female speaking roles On tV OF all female roles

Of the top 100 films of 2018, 40 films featured a WOMAN in the leading or coleading role, an increase from 32 in 2017.

The percent of white women in film has declined to 65 percent in 2018 from 68 percent in 2017.

The percent of Latina women in film has decreased to 4 percent in 2018 from 7 percent in 2017.

The percent of Asian women in film has increased to 10 percent in 2018 from 7 percent in 2017.

The percent of black women in film has increased to 21 percent in 2018 from 16 percent in 2017, a historical high.

In the 2017 to 2018 television season,

77 or 8.2 %

of the 857 regular characters on broadcast scripted primetime programming were identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer

On scripted, prime time cable, there were

recurring LGBTQ characters

and

120

The percent of white women in speaking roles has decreased to 67 percent in 2017-18 from 69 percent in 2016-17.

The percent of Latina women in speaking roles has increased to 7 percent in 2017-18 from 5 percent in 2016, a historical high though there is still notable underrepresentation.

The percent of female Asian women in speaking roles remained at 6 percent.

The percent of black women in speaking roles remained at 19 percent.

The percent of female characters of another race or ethnicity remained at 1 percent.

Representation by Characters’ Occupation and Leadership

27% of all creators, directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and directors of photography working on broadcast networkS, cable and streaming programs were women, a 1 percent decrease from 2016 to 2017.

recurring LGBTQ characters

and

regular LGBTQ characters

Of all LGBTQ characters across all platforms

27 %

were bisexual

and there were

regular and recurring transgender characters

OF male roles

47 % known marital

36 % known marital

62 % identifiable

76 % identifiable

26 % leaders

74 % leaders

female characters were more likely to be social leaders.

male characters were more likely to be political, professional OR blue-collar leaders.

status

On streaming services Amazon, Hulu and Netflix, there were

OF female roles

job/occupation

SOURCES

1. Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, San Diego State University 2. Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, USC Annenberg School of Communication 3. Where Are We On TV Report, Glaad Media Institute

status

job/occupation

“For the first time, LGBTQ characters of color outnumber white, LGBTQ characters on broadcast television 50 to 49 percent.” -GLAAD’s “Where We Are on TV” report

RESEARCH BY: CYNTHIA SUN/THE HOYA, DESIGN BY: EMILY SHAMBAUGH/THE HOYA

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019

THE HOYA

MARVEL STUDIOS

Despite box office smashes like “Captain Marvel” and “Wonder Woman” that feature fictional women as protagonists such as Captain Marvel, above, countless women’s stories have been deemed unfit for film or television by an unreceptive and discriminatory Hollywood industry that is loath to center women’s experiences or cast women as leads.

Women’s Stories Limited by Industry Discrimination MICHELLE BROWN AND STEVEN BOTSOE Hoya Staff Writers

When “Iron Man” hit theaters in 2008, it opened up the floodgates for the development of the Marvel cinematic universe. Since then, a steady stream of semi-annual, male-dominated superhero films granted the MCU its popularity and cultural relevance. But it was not until 20 films and 11 years later that Marvel Studios released its first superhero movie starring a female lead: “Captain Marvel.” In some ways, “Captain Marvel” is a paragon of female empowerment in the film industry: It performed well at the box office as Marvel’s 13th best-selling film and hearkens back to the 2017 triumph that was “Wonder Woman.” Despite this advancement, backlash against “Captain Marvel” and lead actress Brie Larson has illuminated the harsh reality that men and women are still not treated equally in media. Branded a “man-hater” for her comments regarding representation in Hollywood, Larson was the subject of a flurry of internet criticism, with some opposition even calling for a boycott of the film on the basis that the lead is not a white man. Women still seem to have a long way to go in gaining equal status and representation in the film industry, despite Larson’s “Captain Marvel” attracting im-

mense commercial success. C. Nicole Mason, a professor of women’s and gender studies at Georgetown, praised “Captain Marvel” as a step in the right direction but questioned the genuine long-term progress the industry has achieved in an interview with The Hoya. “Captain Marvel has been really spectacular in terms of performance at the box office and having a woman lead in a movie, and I think that’s amazing,” Mason said. “But when we think, a couple years ago it was ‘Wonder Woman’ … my question is: How many blockbusters will there have to be for us to not think of this as an anomaly?” Mason looks forward to a time when audiences will appreciate women as leads and value centering stories around women’s experiences, she said. However, the question of what these stories look like also merits attention according to African American studies professor LaMonda Horton-Stallings. She highlighted the danger of creators trying to offer an ideal representation in an interview with The Hoya, explaining that such notions of a “good” representative have been especially limiting for black women. Rather than ideals, creators and audiences should seek out diversity in their representation, according to Horton-Stallings. “What I would like to see is black artists being able to have their various visions

recognized as being important and significant, but we often only get one version of blackness,” Horton-Stallings said. The entrenched institutions that make up the film and television industries are often slow to change, Horton-Stallings said. “I think it has been a mixed bag because we don’t control networks or the modes of distribution either in TV or film, and that’s part of the issue of seeing different representations, too,” Horton-Stallings said. “Even if you have people who write stories or make films that could give us different representations, whether studios or networks take chances on them often depends on if the right people are in the rooms to greenlight stuff.” Mason echoed this sentiment, identifying institutional flaws as a hindrance to women’s success in the media. Sexism at every level of the production process limits exposure to a variety of women’s stories and perspectives, according to Mason. “Even thinking about when we think about #MeToo and Time’s Up, and thinking about the ways in which the lack of women executives and women in power in television and media has enabled bad behavior by male executive,” Mason said. “What I’m hoping for now is that there’s a shift where, you know, women don’t feel like they have to compromise themselves in order to get a seat at the table and get a role.”

When it comes to trying to measure the progress made for female representation, awards season is often viewed as an illustration of the industry’s success in employing and representing women. While specific gendered categories in awards shows like the Oscars, Emmys and SAG Awards have helped to avoid disparities in the number of awards given to male and female actors, gender disparity in visual media has manifested for these award shows in other ways. This year’s Oscars saw women make up only 25 percent of the total nominees in non-acting awards, according to a study by the Women’s Media Center. Among best picture winners from 1991 to 2016, the proportion of words spoken by female characters with more than 100 words total as compared to the proportion of words spoken by their male counterparts was greater in only one instance – 2003’s “Chicago.” Formal recognition through awards, though, should not be seen as the be-all and end-all. There is a lot of hope for the future of female equality and visibility in film and television, Horton-Stalling said. “In terms of representation, what we’ve seen is that awards don’t have as big of an impact as, say, having somebody in a studio, directing a studio, or head of studio,” Horton-Stallings said. “Those aren’t awards, but those are things that can make a change in the long run.”

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019

THE HOYA

GU DEPARTMENT OF PERFORMING ARTS

Women must confront difficulties in the music industry that their male counterparts do not experience. Though women have continued fighting to gain their rightful place in male-dominated genres, a long road to gender equality remains. Still, women face preconcieved notions and stereotypes while vying for time on the radio waves.

Hear Them Sing: Women in the Music Industry ZAIN SANDHU Hoya Staff Writer

Caught in the storm of a persistent lack of representation and the recent reckoning of certain high-profile abusers, women have historically occupied a shaky space in music. Though women’s status in the collective consciousness of music has significantly improved, the experiences of women in the music industry remain distinct. Though they have worked hard to carve out their own niche, female artists are still at risk of being subject to short-sighted male scrutiny and of having their contributions to music diminished. Anna Celenza, a music professor at Georgetown University, highlighted the noteworthy, yet subtle, improvements in representation for women in the industry over the past decade in an interview with The Hoya. “For a long time, the business side of music was always controlled by men. Women played a role in the creative side, but never in the industry side,” Celenza said. “So if you look at who the great A&R people, the people who are finding artists, or the executives, the whole scene was very maledominated. I would say that only maybe just in the past decade are things slowly starting to change. It’s improving, but the industry is still very much a male-dominat-

ed space.” A capella singer and band member Hanna Chan (COL ’19), who recently signed with Georgetown’s Prospect Records, elaborated on the male-dominated nature of music, stressing the male gaze as one of its main issues. For women in music, it not only matters how women break into the industry, but also how they are perceived when they do, according to Chan. “When putting out music, and especially when performing, it’s almost as if both your music and your appearance are put under intense scrutiny,” Chan said. “The male gaze is so much more daunting and objectifying when you feel like you talent is being judged and lumped in with how you look. I mean, you want people to listen to you, not stare at you or sexualize you.” From up-and-coming artists like Chan to some of the biggest names in entertainment today, the phenomenon of unrelenting gendered expectations is apparent in the entire music industry. These expectations not only poorly affect female artists but also benefit male artists. “Women are much less likely to be called geniuses,” Robynn Stilwell, a professor of music at Georgetown University, wrote in an email to The Hoya. Stilwell’s expertise include the intersections of music, identity and sexuality.

The collaborative nature of a lot of music today contributes to the warped perception of female artists, according to Stilwell. “One of the things about rap, for example, today is that it is so collaborative. There is a lot more of people working together nowadays,” Stilwell wrote. “Of course, the collaborative nature of the genre works very well for a lot of male artists, Kanye West being a great example. But it tends to not work as well for the women.” An artist like Kanye West, who is famous for employing heavy collaboration when producing his music, is still surrounded by the narrative of a male genius. On the other hand, women, no matter how hardworking and independent, are more likely to be seen as the window dressing, even in a track curated with a collaborative atmosphere in mind, according to Stilwell. However, women are no longer waiting to be recognized in terms of their contribution to music. Cardi B has an army of supporters on social media and in the press, and her remarkable performance on the Billboard Top 100 this past year certainly lends itself to the idea that we are in the midst of a revival for women in rap. Elsewhere, rappers like Young M.A and Rico Nasty are redefining ideas about femininity and gender presentation. Yet even when women achieve success in a certain arena within music, pressures

that stem from their gender in the public spotlight persist. For example, even in a genre like pop where women have seen widespread success, their roles are still subject to their predominantly male audience, according to Stilwell. She also noted pop’s obsession with youth especially as it concerns women. “There are a number of successful female artists in pop. However, pop unfortunately is a place for girls. They rarely ever get to be grown women,” Stilwell wrote. “And even when they are grown women, such as Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston, we still collectively want to see them as their teenage selves. A perfect example of this is Madonna working so hard to stay young simply because we don’t have a place for a Madonna who’s not.” Apart from pop, women are starting to be increasingly seen in other genres, such as rap. Thus, though the road to and within music may be rocky for female artists, women have not failed to create some of the most important art existing today. “From early on in music history there have always been women who don’t fit the paradigm,” Stilwell wrote. “That’s a large part of the problem with telling the story of women in music. There may not be space for them in the story men have created, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there.”

B10

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019

THE HOYA

Women Break Barriers, Leave Mark on Comedy JESSICA MAKSIMOV Special to The Hoya

Today, women are performing stand-up sets in front of stadiums full of people, featuring as cast members on “Saturday Night Live” and hosting their own late-night talk shows. Just a decade ago, however, all of this success seemed nearly impossible. In rare opportunities, comedic actresses have been leading in film and television for over 80 years, but female comics and hosts are a relatively new addition to the entertainment field. The obstacles female comedians face, from pay to appropriate topics, still differ quite distinctly from those of their male counterparts. Comedy has been ruled by men since the late 1930s, when comedian Bob Hope began performing weekly monologues on his radio show, according to Britannica. His monologue style was replicated on TV shows once the television was invented. In the 1950s, women were finally starting to be represented by the sitcom. The timeless show “I Love Lucy,” starring Lucille Ball, made waves in a field that had been otherwise a boys’ club. The market of stand-up comedy is still disproportionately stacked against women, and as a result they have had a gradual transition onto the stage with less success than

their male colleagues. The highest paid comedians in the world are diverse racially, stylistically and in terms of their subject material, according to Forbes’ most recent list. The list, however, lacks gender representation: All 10 comedians on it are men. This discrepancy is mainly a reflection of the differing crowds men and women draw, as most revenue in comedy is earned through ticket sales, according to Forbes. Men still sell out much larger halls than women do, like stand-up comedian Gabriel Iglesias, who recently did a sold-out show in a Houston football stadium. The unequal ratio between men and women in comedy can also be seen in the Georgetown Improv Association, where for the last two years, only two out of 10 members have been female. Women in the group often feel pressured to make safer choices onstage than their male counterparts, according to team member Julia Usiak (COL ’19), who has been performing with the team since her sophomore year. “I think that most girls are taught to be demure, so they have a hard time playing bold and gross characters. I admire performers like [comedians and former SNL cast members] Maya Rudolph and Aidy Bryant,” Usiak said. “They’re not shy or self-conscious, traits I have also learned to possess through my ex-

perience here.” However, women in comedy are not holding back anymore in their content. Many women today use their stage as a platform for talking about women’s issues and rights. Amy Schumer often works women’s issues into her comedy sets. In her latest Netflix special, “Amy Schumer Growing,” Schumer discusses the realities of pregnancy and sexual assault. “I don’t know if men know how scared we are, as women, all the time. One in three of us will be assaulted at some point in our lives,” Schumer said. “If I take the subway at night, I will run home — like, we run home, and it’s not for the cardio.” Chelsea Handler hosted her own latenight talk show, “Chelsea Lately,” for eight years on E! and was one of the few women to have held that position. Handler has mentioned that she is tired of getting compared to other female comedians, solely on the basis of being the same gender. She emphasizes the fact that all comics have different styles and material and should not be lumped into one category as women. “Journalists sometimes … they’ll say, ‘Do you think there’s a lot of similarities between you and Sarah Silverman? Or Lena Dunham? Or whoever? Amy Schumer?’ I’m like, ‘No, we’re just women,’” Handler said in an 2014

interview with HuffPost. “Just because we’re women doesn’t mean there are tons of similarities. Every single one of us is vastly different.” NBC announced in a statement Thursday that Indian-Canadian YouTube star Lilly Singh will be hosting her own late-night show in September called “A Little Late With Lilly Singh,” which will make her the only woman hosting a late-night talk show on a “Big 4 Network.” Women are starting to set themselves apart, and an increasing number of them are coming to the stage. Gender plays a significant role in a comedian’s perspective, according to Michelle Renslo (COL ’22), another member of the Georgetown Improv Association. In her high school, the ratio of girls to boys on the improv team was pretty even, and she hopes to see a balance between women and men across all improv groups. “I would say generally in comedy everyone brings a different perspective, and that’s what makes it so fun,” Renslo said. “Gender influences every aspect of your life, and it definitely influences the parts you play. The large gender imbalance on the team is something we always joke about are trying to address, and it’s something I want to work towards changing in my upcoming years at Georgetown.”

LEFT: NETFLIX, RIGHT: GEORGETOWN IMPROV ASSOCIATION/FACEBOOK

The comedy industry has long been a boys’ club with little acceptance of female comedians. Now, trailblazers like Amy Schumer, left, shatter stereotypes and forge their own spaces in the world of comedy, despite barriers to entry. Even on the Hilltop, women have opportunities to work in comedy, including in the Georgetown Improv Association, right.

B11

THE HOYA

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019

Myths Surrounding the Wage Gap

“Women aren’t assertive enough to ask for raises.”

yth

• Women are viewed as less likable when they negotiate and are less likely than men to get what they want in negotiations, according to The New York Times.

“Saying women make 77 cents to every dollar a man makes is an exaggeration.” Truth:

Truth:

• With time off included for reasons such as unpaid maternity or parental leave, women’s income was 51 percent less than men’s, according to NBC News. Services like paid family leave do not exist everywhere in the United States; this absence unnecessarily punishes choosing family over job responsibilities, according to NBC News.

“Women just aren’t breadwinners.” Truth: • Women comprise almost half of the workforce and do make significant monetary contributions in half of American families with children, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

“Maternity leave justifies the pay gap.”

•

Per the National Women’s Law Center: • A woman of color who works full time all year may lose over $1 million in income over a full career because of the wage gap. • Latina women are only paid 54 cents to a white, non-Hispanic man’s dollar, a loss of $26,000 every year. • Indigenous women are only paid 57 cents to a white, non-Hispanic man’s dollar. • Black women are only paid 63 cents to the dollar of their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts.

Truth:

• The wage gap persists because companies practice salary secrecy, a policy under which employees are not allowed to discuss their earnings, according to The New York Times.

“The wage gap is closing fast.”

Truth: • At the current rate of change, on average, women will not reach pay parity until 2059, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

RESEARCH BY: TIMOTHY MCNULTY/THE HOYA, DESIGN BY: ELOISE OWEN, STEPHANIE PARMITER & EMILY SHAMBAUGH/THE HOYA

ILLUSTRATION BY: STEPHANIE PARMITER/THE HOYA