Getting Women in the Director's Chair, part 2

Nell Scovell is probably best known as Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In co-author. (She also created the 90s tv show Sabrina the Teenage Witch and was a writer for The Simpsons!) She published an op-ed in the New York Times today titled "How to Get More Women Into the Director's Chair." It's an interesting companion to the story I posted about last week. 

I wholeheartedly agree with this observation:

"In television, most studio executives and showrunners claim they are looking for female directors, but I suspect it’s the same way that I sometimes look for the sunglasses on my head: They’re right there, but I can’t see them.

People insist it’s a pipeline problem when it’s really a broken doorbell problem. Competent and talented women are right there on the doorstep, hitting the buzzer, but no one is answering the door. Last year, even with constant calls for more gender diversity, 86 percent of the first-time TV directors were still white males."

And her approach to helping newcomers build directing credits:

"Studios should flip the shadow programs. From now on, let the newcomers do the directing and pay the old hands to shadow them. The green directors get to rack up real credits while the show has a safety net. Ding-dong. Doorbell's fixed."

Wouldn't it be cool if this idea were put into action? I hope some network takes this and runs with it. I don't know about you, but when there are women's names in the credits of television shows, I notice. It may not impact my viewing habits, but it affects how I feel about a show.

Getting Women in the Director's Chair

If you know me, chances are you've heard me go on about how much I love the new-last-season show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I caught the first episode, and was immediately hooked. Created by star Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna, the musical-comedy is really funny- and the first season is on Netflix, so you can catch up. (Or you can watch a bunch of the music videos from the show here.) The theme song explains the show's premise nicely.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is also participating in an initiative to bring more balance to the director lineup for the show. TV shows often have a different director from episode to episode, but over 70% of those directors are white men. (Season 1 of CEG included Kenny Ortega, who directed the High School Musical movies, and Joanna Kerns, best known as the mom on Growing Pains.)

This article on Buzzfeed, "The Small Thing One Network Did to Hire Directors Who Aren't White Guys," explains how CBS is taking a very personal approach to getting more women and people and color into the director's chair. They set up a speed-dating style breakfast that paired 15 directors with CBS executives with the explicit goal of "diversifying the director lineup of CBS and CW shows." Participants received coaching from CBS's diversity department beforehand, and get ongoing support from the network:

" All of the participants shadow on CBS shows and receive support and feedback on their reels, how to pitch themselves, and what their websites should look like. They also receive ongoing sponsorship from CBS's diversity department: [Jeanne] Mau [who runs CBS's directing diversity initiative] and her colleagues will follow up with executives at CBS The CW, and other networks if any of their alumni or contacts seem right for a certain show. 'We serve as an in-house agency to some degree in terms of pitching our 'clients,' for lack of a better term,' Mau said." 

The entertainment industry has received increased public and government scrutiny lately over its lack of diversity both in front of the camera and behind it. This program sounds really productive to me for few reasons. 1) It literally makes women and people of color visible to people at the highest levels by putting them face-to-face. I've heard that a common excuse is not knowing people outside the white, male mold, and this initiative negates that. 2) Participants develop the network that helps directors build careers. CBS keeps them in mind and helps them become known to people at their shows. 3) As more women and people of color become part of the mix of directors, or really, any field, their presence will become normal, and the idea of "what a director looks like" will become broader. I think (and hope) this will help create sustainable change. 

Tiffany Smith-Anoa'i, the executive vice president of diversity, inclusion, and communications at CBS Entertainment sums up the end-goal of this initiative: "If I got a list back in the day, and there were 13 men on it, that looked normal. Now, what we say, there's no quota, there's no percentage -- I want a balanced list. We all know what the word 'balanced' means."

Sheryl Sandberg and the Myth of the Catty Woman

Over the weekend, Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant had a great op-ed in the New York Times on the Myth of the Catty Woman. It starts off with a story:

At the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, the Norwegian cross-country skier Therese Johaug was vying for her first individual gold medal. Fresh off a world championship in the 10-kilometer race, she was now competing in the 30-kilometer. More than a grueling hour later, Ms. Johaug landed the silver, finishing less than three seconds behind the gold medalist — her training partner, Marit Bjorgen.

The two Norwegians are the top two female cross-country skiers in the world and fierce competitors. Instead of being bitter rivals, they are best friends.

Ms. Bjorgen, 36, has been the reigning queen for more than a decade. When Ms. Johaug burst onto the scene, a wunderkind eight years younger threatening to unseat her, Ms. Bjorgen took her under her wing.

“She has given me an incredible amount of confidence,” Ms. Johaug said, “and because she has done that I have become the cross-country skier I am.” When Ms. Bjorgen announced last year that she was pregnant, Ms. Johaug joked that she was prepared to be the baby’s “spare aunt.”

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Johaug, left, and Bjorgen, right, in 2012  Photo from www.dagbladet.no.

Johaug and Bjorgen's friendship reminded me of another great friendship between elite athletes: women's tennis greats Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. The two met in 1973 as teenagers, and faced off 80 times over the next 16 years, often after warming up together pre-match. They've remained close friends, and talk about how their bond was formed in the film Unmatched, part of the ESPN's 30 for 30 series. It's worth watching; I've never seen anything that takes such an in-depth look at the friendship between two real women, in their own words.

Sandberg isn't the first person to write about the power of having friends at the top of their game. Ann Friedman wrote about the concept for New York Magazine in 2013, coining the term "Shine Theory," She advises, " surrounding yourself with the best people doesn't make you look worse by comparison. It makes you better." Both pieces go into more detail about how women supporting and encouraging each other is beneficial for all involved, whether personally or in the workplace.

I wholeheartedly believe in the idea that strong relationships with other women make our lives immeasurably better. Few things bring me more pleasure than getting to brag about the cool things my friends are doing, unless it's talking about how awesome the women I've spoken to for Girls Like You and Me are!