Unequal Hollywood: African Americans, women, and representation in a media industry

While extensive research on mainstream media has examined African Americans' and women's on-screen images and behind-the-scenes presence, less is known about their behind-the-scenes representation in major media organizations. Using a mixed methods approach, I analyze data on over 1,700 theatrically-released Hollywood films between 2000 and 2011, in order to investigate the quantity and quality of African Americans' and women's behind the-scenes-representation in one media occupation--film directing. I find that African Americans and women experience a double disadvantage in cultural production. First, they experience underrepresentation. Second, they face marginalization, including segregation into few genres, allocation of low production budgets, and virtual exclusion from prestigious opportunities like lucrative franchise film directing. These results show that in organizations where racial and gender inequality have been historically institutionalized, there is a need for African Americans and women to shift their rhetoric of advocacy for increased behind-the-scenes representation to focus on improving qualitative aspects of representation, in addition to improving their presence in numbers more generally. Tackling the double disadvantage of cultural production will move members of these groups closer to achieving true parity in employment at mainstream media organizations.