Original subtitles

(logo whooshing)

Downloaded from YTS.MX

(gentle music)

Progress for women has stalled out over the last decade.

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

I was shocked by this.

I really thought we'd come further.

We're moving in the wrong direction.

We've spent decades trying to fit women

into a work world built for company men.

Conventional advice to women in 40 years

hasn't closed the gender gap at the top.

And won't close it.

Our daughters are facing the same issues

that we faced early in our career.

(light acoustic guitar music)

You're gonna be in the middle.

Let me have my actresses surround her

on this side and this side.

You can say speeding or rolling.

Rolling! Take one.

Action!

(exclaiming)

(laughing) All right.

(clapping) Say cut.

Cut! (clapping)

Our school actually had to make a rule

that you have to pass to a girl at least once

before you shoot, because it became such a bad problem.

You know what they do in the film industry?

They make it so you have to hire a girl

because it's become such a problem.

Are you joking? Unh uh.

How hard was it to become a filmmaker being a girl

because, like, there are not many girl directors?

Has it been difficult? Yeah!

Becoming a director in the film industry

is probably one of the most difficult jobs

because what you're trying to do is prove to people

that your voice matters.

So not only am I in an industry

where I'm trying to prove myself for the job in general,

I'm also a woman

who isn't taken seriously very often.

Has anyone ever experienced something like that before?

Yeah. Yes.

And that's actually the reason

why I'm making this documentary.

Because I got fed up with people assuming

I didn't know what I was doing.

Or she's only here because she's a woman.

That's the only reason she got here, because she's a woman.

I know I'm gonna be a filmmaker.

There's no other choice for me.

Aren't you already a filmmaker?

I know I am a filmmaker

and there's no other choice for me.

(laughing) OK!

I wondered what will happen when they grow up?

That's a wrap. Well,

the same thing happening to women today

if we don't do something now.

Girl Scouts! Girl Scouts!

Studies show women start out

pioneering in their careers.

They actually lead men in ambition.

But it only takes two years for that confidence they have

in their potential for career success

to plummet by more than 60%.

Only two years.

And this happened to me.

I had to understand what are those challenges

robbing women of their ambition?

How do we identify them?

And how do we put an end to them?

I'm tired of feeling like I'm not in control of my career.

And I bet other women are too.

(stomping music)

Equal rights

to set forth our own humanity.

♪ Find table spaces, say your social graces ♪

♪ Bow your head, they're pious here ♪

♪ But you and I, we're pioneers ♪

♪ We make our own rules, our own room, no bias here ♪

Stop saying that there's not enough qualified women.

You gotta get used to seeing me.

♪ So hey we brought our drum ♪

♪ And this is how we dance ♪

Do you feel like you're trying to have things

be too perfect?

♪ We have no apologies ♪

♪ For being, find me where the wild things are ♪

♪ All right, we'll be all right ♪

♪ Don't mind us, find me where the ♪

I am a feminist. Equal rights for women

in the United States of America!

Powerful women across the globe.

♪ Find me where the wild things are ♪

(chatting)

May I take a picture?

My mom tended to film everything.

Brand new backpack.

Hi Ash.

So I'm not surprised

that I soon wanted that camera, too.

Mommy can I take a picture with you?

Yep, here, just look through it, hold it still.

OK, look over here!

Over here!

Over here!

Over here, can you get us?

Can you see us in there?

Yeah. (laughing) Okay.

I swear, I get better.

(dramatic music)

(screaming)

At 27, I believed I was truly on my way

to being the director I wanted to be.

But, I was hit with a new reality I wasn't prepared for.

It seemed small at first.

I'd walk on set, and the crew would often

second guess my decisions.

So I'd stand my ground, but then it got worse.

Instead of getting hired as a director,

I wasn't seen as someone who could do the job.

At first I thought this was all my fault.

For me it was moments realizing that

other people had a problem with me being in charge

and being a director.

I didn't think I couldn't until (laughing)

I got out in the real world and they were like,

but you're a woman, and I'm like, (scoffing) yeah?

Isn't it cool? (laughing)

This is a problem I had, especially as an actress.

And when I started trying to make movies as well

is that I get out there and shmooze

and I end up somehow on a date.

(laughing) And, like, I don't know why!

And I didn't realize I was on a date.

Until halfway through the date.

Yeah halfway through and then I'm like

oh you're not gonna give me money to make a project,

we're on a date right now!

It's hard, it's because you don't want to be

the butt of the joke, oh hey.

You don't want to be the sex vixen.

You want to be the director.

You want to be able to enjoy your work.

You want to be able to create good work

and people respect you for it.

But as a system, yes!

Because it's acceptable, and here we are,

as women, again, butt of the joke.

That's what it felt like.

Just work harder, right?

That's what we're told.

(lively music) Don't hit this guy either.

Don't hit the other pedestrians.

Oh there's my crew! Hi! Oh there they are!

(laughing) Joan!

Joan! (laughing)

I had to speak with someone

who understood the industry we work in

and could give me some advice.

So I sat down with director Joan Darling.

She was my directing teacher in college

and a pioneer in television.

She was one of the first women ever

to direct a television show,

including one of TV Guide's Top 100 Episodes of all time.

(laughing)

A little seltzer down his pants.

(laughing)

Joan invited her friend

and colleague Norman Lear.

I tell ya, sweetheart! Goodness,

how great to see you.

Norman is one of TV's

most influential producers.

And is a constant champion for equal rights.

It was on his show, "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"

that Joan had her first directing job.

Joni told me you were the first one

to ask her if she was interested in directing.

Were you looking for a woman director in particular?

Not for the sake of hiring a woman.

We spent a long time talking about it.

Right.

It occurred to me that you were saying things,

understanding the subject in a way,

understanding what was required

of the actors. Of the material, yeah.

Just followed that I might ask

"Have you ever thought about directing this?"

And you said "Well I think you should do it."

And I said "Well I don't know how to do it."

I said "Unless!"

"What it is, is you got the table,"

"you have all three of them, you're on the two of them"

"for the joke, then you go back over to her."

And you looked at me, said "You'll do it"

and walked away. (laughing) (light guitar music)

This one opportunity opened doors for Joan

to take on more jobs as director.

When I started, the only woman's name

I ever saw was my own.

So was there a moment when you realized

this was a big deal?

As a director?

No! I was an idiot.

Diversity was beginning, which was in the '70s.

Diversity was beginning to come into everybody's mind.

More in terms of...

Women were sort of oddballs.

We weren't even up the scale enough

to be prejudiced against.

Everything was natural to me

except the fact that I was a woman.

I would go home and feel like I'd made a fool of myself

by saying "This is what I need,"

or "This is what it has to be," or whatever.

And then I had a cameraman once,

who, when I did my first one camera show,

I said "I want to see them from the waist up"

"coming down the stairs, talking."

I get this horror movie shot.

I knew what I wanted to see, and I knew it was possible.

He didn't want to use the zoom is what it came down to.

So I go to the phone, I call the producer.

I say "It's 11:00, I know exactly what I want."

"This cameraman is not giving me that shot."

He came down, I had the shot, we made the day.

That was when I became conscious.

That was when I said to myself,

there's no woman out there getting dressed every morning

and going into work and being a director.

Well I'll tell you, I had this mindset

of, I can just walk on set and do it, do the job.

I'm in my 80s and I'm still wrestling with it.

And the fact is, the statistics, the figures show

that too few women are directing

as it relates to their percentage in the industry.

Let's bring up the stats.

Thanks to Joan and women like her,

there are more women today with their eyes on directing.

But the numbers of women actually getting those jobs

is still incredibly small,

especially those movies that you go to see in the theater.

Think about it.

The stories you see today,

they're often told by men.

I feel that the reason there are few women directors

is because when one walks in the room,

that's not necessarily what you see.

You see other things about her besides her talent.

And, that has nothing to do with...

And do you feel that happens to a man?

Let's say a guy goes in for a directing job

and he's unkempt and he has egg on his shirt.

He's an artist.

(laughing) OK, you're right! (laughing)

If we come in like that... I don't want to make it

a man verse woman thing.

I am just trying to say that there's something underlying

that makes it just a little bit more difficult

when a woman chooses this career.

If that's true...

Does it matter? If that's true.

It matters... I think there is a bias.

Unfortunately it's something very right about that.

It's harder for an attractive woman to look like an artist

in our culture.

This would be a big confession. (laughing)

I walked in and met you, a very pretty woman.

My instinct, within five minutes was,

ooh, pay attention here,

she knows what she's talking about.

She's got something on her mind, you know, pay attention.

But that's instinct overcoming,

what I guess, without the instinct would be prejudice.

(light music)

And I've never said any of that before.

And I love listening to it. (laughing)

I realize there are some things,

at least in my generation,

that simply have to be overcome.

Overcome, yes, definitely.

But this is not a generational issue.

It's been over 40 years since Joan first stepped on set

and the numbers are barely moving.

I needed to get outside of my own industry

to figure out how we can get past these prejudices.

OK, so let's go get 80 bags. (laughing)

And that's how I found a woman on a similar mission,

Lucy Sanders.

I think it's important to understand

that there is bias in the culture, right, it's not you.

And it's not just in the corporate space

or in the startup space.

It's in classrooms, it's in any organizational structure

where one group is significantly underrepresented,

which means there's another group

that's significantly overrepresented. (laughing)

And there's a societal bias

from both men and women about...

that, you know, sort of topic if you will.

Lucy founded an organization

to offer research and solutions

to get more women and girls into computing.

She focuses on how biases, specifically,

our unconscious biases impact our decisions

in our culture today.

In computing, in technology,

there's a strong societal bias about who does tech.

I mean, I guarantee you, if you walk down the street

and you ask people to draw a picture about who does tech,

you'd get a hoodie, you'd get a white guy,

they'd be young, maybe they dropped out of college you know.

And they're not going to necessarily think

about a young woman such as yourself

you know, being a chief technology officer.

It's just not in our societal thinking.

Yes, yes, I think that will be fine.

Excuse me, doctor.

I'm the doctor, he's the nurse.

Wow. Wow.

(audience laughing)

You think about the word, unconscious bias.

We all understand bias.

Unconscious means that it's a bias

that we're bringing to the table

but we don't realize it. Sure, yeah.

It's unconscious.

And it's a bias that men and women bring to the table.

Brad is a venture capitalist

who invests in software and internet companies

like Fitbit and Moz.

He joined Lucy Sanders as a co-founder

of her organization when he learned about the issues

and the challenges surrounding women in technology.

I had no idea what the actual issues were.

And in the first five minutes she said to me

that we've created a culture where women are,

you know, not invited

or feel not invited.

Or aren't able to comfortably engage

and choose not to do it.

Mom.

This stuff might not seem like a big deal

but it chips away at you. If I got bent outta shape

every time a man said something stupid,

you wouldn't be here.

(audience laughing)

Mom!

This is a real problem!

The sexism I'm talking about

is all the little disrespectful things that men do-

That they don't even realize.

(audience laughing)

I definitely don't want it to be about

like, attacking the perpetrator or the system.

It's about just being aware that it exists.

Your coffee, sir. Thanks!

Today is less about outright,

overt sexism towards women.

How can such a pretty wife make such bad coffee?

I heard that!

It's more subtle.

We're trained to laugh it off. Got it.

Need it back by 5 gentlemen.

Thanks, beautiful. Manners, boys.

It's not always easy to see,

even when it's right in front of you.

Girl clothes say "Hey, beautiful. I feel fabulous!"

The boys, "Desert adventure awaits.

Think outside the box. Hero."

And even our amount of makeup worn

is up for debate.

If you wear too much, you're seen as untrustworthy.

But if you don't wear enough, you aren't taken seriously.

That's not how it should be, but that's how it is.

And women are expected to be able to handle all of this.

I'm exhausted just lookin' at it.

When I was wearing makeup people would assume

I was only there as the girlfriend.

Clearly that is my issue, right?

I don't want to be somebody's girlfriend.

(laughing) I am here

as the person in charge.

You do realize this is a privilege?

You pretty women- Yeah.

When you walk into a room and they're all like,

"oh you're so pretty," you get a seat at a table

because you're pretty.

You guys have a privilege that, like, I'm not used to.

I'm not gonna get meetings because I'm the pretty,

petite girl in the corner, never gonna happen for me.

So, check your privilege. But you also might

get taken more seriously.

Cool, that's my privilege. (laughing)

Women are often seen as either competent or likable,

but oftentimes not both, and that's a problem

because we know in the workplace it helps to be both

competent and well-liked.

So women have to spend this energy

in walking this fine line

and that's energy that oftentimes,

men don't have to think about.

What I always deal with, is I'm doing the same thing

the male would do, but I'm perceived, you know, the B word.

It's constantly thrown in my face.

Like if you weren't a chick, they would be fine.

I think it's easier the higher up you go.

You're probably feeling it more because you're younger

and at the beginning of your career.

I mean, in a lot of ways, when you say that word,

I think I love that when I see women,

and younger women and somebody tells me they're aggressive.

I'm like, right on! (laughing)

Can I meet her? (laughing)

What's her phone number?

It's interesting.

I think that when men talk about other women to me,

sometimes it seems like they're trying to dance

around a personality issue and they kind of like cover it up

with about performance and results.

And I'm like, I feel like really this is about personality.

Well is it because they're speaking to you

and you're a woman?

Whereas if they were speaking to a male CEO

they would frame it differently?

Yeah. Yeah.

There's such a focus on your personality as a woman.

But why aren't we looking at the man and holding him

to the same high standard we're holding women to?

We see a lot of women who think, oh somehow it's me.

They have sort of allowed this

socialization to beat them down.

OK, double standards, bias, unfair perceptions.

These are all norms women are forced

to navigate in the workplace, and it can take its toll.

There's a body of research called stereotype threat.

It's the fear that a member of an underrepresented group

in any culture or classroom, it's that fear

that they will reinforce a negative stereotype

about their group.

You know how when you take the math SAT,

when you take your college... Yeah.

And you ask the gender question,

they took that question off the first part of the test

and moved it to the end of the test.

And when they did that, women scored higher,

and men scored lower.

And the hypothesis I've heard is that it's because women

were not reminded of that stereotype

that women aren't good in math.

And men were not reminded of the positive stereotype

that men are... That men are good at math.

Yeah. Good at math.

And this is all unconscious.

It's not like you wake up in the morning

and decide you're gonna go trip out on stereotype threat.

(laughing) It would be, oh wait, I'm the only woman

in my department, or I'm the only woman in my team.

That means my idea has to be 150% perfect.

That means that I'm not going for any promotion

that I'm not 150% qualified for.

You know, that means I'm not gonna be the first

to speak out in a meeting, et cetera,

et cetera, et cetera.

Because it has to be so perfect.

The key is, we all need to realize

these stereotypes are playing games with our heads,

making us do and think things we're not aware of.

Sound familiar?

This made me think though, stereotypes,

they start long before we even think about our careers.

It starts earlier than people think.

Girls as young as six years old

are less likely than boys to see members

of their own gender as really, really smart.

The princess obsession

is contributing to self-objectification.

Being a girl, there's pressure to always

have a perfection that no one has.

I remember having to battle that pressure, too.

So is it possible to intervene earlier

to prevent these stereotypes in the first place?

(metallic rattling)

This is the calculator, and this is how it works.

You just gotta crank these gears.

And, these make the gears move.

And these gears have a hard time spinning

when you do it that way.

So you have to do- Like this.

Either this one or that one.

See look, make this gear move.

They seemed fine to me.

But I couldn't help but wonder if that would change.

I'm Lia Schwinghammer.

My current title is Executive Director

for Queen City Robotics Alliance

which is a non-profit based in Charlotte, North Carolina

that promotes STEM education for students

kindergarten through 12th grade.

We're making a robot that we're gonna enter

into the competition. In this one

you're supposed to push this, spin the wheels.

Ready? Try it again, try again.

(mechanical whirring)

It pushed it!

There's all kinds of research that shows

that girls are outperforming boys in elementary school

whether it's math or science or anything.

And starting in middle school

and into high school that reverses.

Before we had a girls team in middle school

we had an incident where it was early in the season,

we had just recruited a bunch of girls.

We had a demonstration coming up so I sent the kids off,

I said go get the robot out,

make sure everything's working, go to it.

Everybody, I should say every boy got up

and walked off to go get the robot and stuff out.

And all the girls just sat there.

And then I realized, "Ladies!"

"Why are you sitting there?"

"Get up and go!"

I actually saw a couple of girls start,

and say oh, oh yeah okay, that means me too.

It really got me thinking, what's happening?

What's going on?

Middle school is a very important time in development.

It's adolescence.

And that's when our brains are undergoing

enormous growth and change.

So it's very important that we reach out

to young women at that stage.

It's also a stage where they're thinking a lot

about what it means to be a woman,

what it means to be a man.

Can you be an engineer? Can you be a computer scientist?

Did you guys know that a lot of girls get interested

in this stuff, but then later, they don't do it?

Really?

Well when I think of something

that I want to grow up and I confirm it,

that's what I'm gonna do.

I try to do everything I can

to make sure I complete that goal.

I wanted to start a girls team

that would be middle school girls.

So when they went to the high school team

they would have more confidence,

they would've had that experience and know how.

(bouncy rock music)

So I had to bring my robot into dance class.

And it was, like, sitting in the hallway

where I was putting on my ballet shoes.

And my classmates are coming in, and they're like "Whoa!"

"What is that?" (laughing)

And I'm like "It's a robot."

And they're like "Cool!"

"How does it work? What does it do?"

And I'm like "Oh it picks up blocks

and puts them in baskets."

And they're like "Oh that's awesome!"

So people tend to have that reaction.

The reason that we both like doing robotics

is because it's fun, and you get to work with friends

building the robot and making it your own

and programming it.

You can decorate it anyway you want.

We put sparkles on ours.

(laughing)

So what I learned from my research

and talking to people is that there's two big factors

in the middle school years that are really

having an influence, an impact on, do they continue

with science and technology?

And that's during their middle school years,

are they staying active in a science club,

or engineering group?

Or are they doing something with STEM?

The second biggest factor is, are their fathers

being involved with them?

And this is key because we don't necessarily think

about dads working with their girls on the computer

or showing them how to program

or showing them how to fix things on their car.

The dad plays a huge role in the girl's well-being

when they reach their teenage years.

A lot of times the boys' self-esteems

kind of just automatically go up

when they get to teenage years.

And the girls, that's not an automatic.

I think it's the parents competing with peers,

and the peers are buttressed by the media environment.

We start it from the day they're born,

a pink crib and a blue crib.

It's just such utter nonsense and it's so pervasive.

(squealing) Disney Princess Carriage.

With the color shifters

custom color shop, blast through a raging waterfall.

The environment is destructive.

I mean, I spent the drive here this morning

talking to my 16 year old daughter,

you know, arguing about the debate,

why is it guys can wear loose khakis

and girls are all wearing tight jeans?

There's stuff going on that inculcates it

into their minds and their way of thinking

that happens way, way early.

We're talking even before school starts

whether it's commercials or what have you.

(sawing)

Oh, oh, oh!

Give me a sec.

It's almost done,

there's just a little, little bit left.

There we go. Woo!

Much easier. I think kids

get their priorities set by two different groups, right?

Their parents and their peers.

There's things that can work their way into a priority.

So having an all girls team for example

sort of gets rid of some of those things

that aren't priorities at that age, right?

And it kinda helps them focus on, well you know

let's find out if this is something that's curious,

if this captures your imagination.

You want them to have time to ponder those things,

to think about them and make sure

that they're not distracted so much by things

that might not, at the end of the day be as important.

So, Iman, what you working on?

I have to take apart this gear box

and take one of the parts out and put it back together

and make another gear box.

Yeah totally got all that.

Well I mean, it's not that complicated.

There is a ring gear and,

a bunch of planetary gears and,

quartz, all and stuff. Yeah

I mean, one of the things that I guess I'm happiest about,

at one point we were having a holiday

and it was, like, what do I get for my kids?

And I said well, you know, I can get you a normal present

like we do, or I will give you a little bit more

to buy tools at Home Depot.

And Iman, my daughter picked the tools.

So I ended up buying her 60, $70 worth of tools.

But we went there several trips.

And I talked about which tools are most useful.

Like everybody needs a hammer,

everybody needs some locking pliers.

So there's a sense of ownership.

And from that point on, if there was something

that required some hand tools around the house,

switch a doorknob or take something apart or what have you,

say "Honey get your tools, let's do this."

And just the activity of doing that

is really kind of an empowering thing.

Hey. (laughing)

After Maddy, Sophia and Iman

were on their all girls middle school team for two years,

they graduated to the coed high school team.

I had to ask, did Lia's experiment work?

When the girls entered into the coed high school team,

you noticed that they weren't a step behind,

they were just jumping right in.

And they were actually a little bit ahead.

Right, right.

Their first season, they went out there five times

and three of them, the robot did nothing.

And we're all standing there, and it was a loose wire

or something got bumped or something got messed up.

That could have been, you know,

a game ender for a lot of people,

like oh it didn't work, I'm never coming back.

And now they go in and they know

well we better check the wires,

we better shake that thing around,

and we better prepare that things can go wrong

and how to deal with them quickly.

Yeah it's just a problem to solve

they go solve it. Yeah.

I think what we gotta do

is we gotta put the trash can on top of a box

before we do any box stacking.

Yeah and then we just lift the box.

Remember we only have to... This is our trash can!

Is it? I think it's really good

to get the girls involved early 'cause not only is it good

for the girls themselves, but it's good for the boys.

We have to build up the top.

But remember how we want to stay low too?

'Cause they get to see,

hey there are females in this role.

I gotta learn how to deal with them.

This isn't like a little boys club.

So they're learning too.

Put that like... We'll just go around

the trash can, just go around the trash can.

They're willing to interact as equals

with the boys on the team when they get into groups.

They're more willing to speak up.

And what's happening is that the other new girls

are being subtly influenced.

And I see that energy and confidence spreading.

No, oh there it goes, see.

I think a culture of opportunity

and that girls can do anything is incredibly important.

And you can instill that in so many ways.

Sports is one avenue,

and we know that makes a difference in girls' lives.

It's not about the robots, it's teamwork,

it's working through a design challenge.

It's really about all the other things around it

that kids learn.

(overlapping chatting) There we go.

I was happy to see

what these girls had going for them.

Yeah we did. Remember to push down

really hard. (mechanical whirring)

Going straight down as possible.

But I was still concerned.

Will it be enough?

OK. But we could

do the ones like here.

I think students like Maddy

have all the tools for success.

And that's because not only we here at the school

have laid a foundation, but her parents

and mentors are leading the way on that.

I'm thinking about going into electrical or design.

Who knows, maybe I'll make a robotic eye.

119 through 152, Maddy, yes ma'am.

But she's definitely gonna run into some obstacles.

It's sad to say that the white haired men

that are still out there in the engineering firms

are gonna give her a hard time

because they're scared of her.

In the engineering field specifically,

it is male dominated.

And so people will be hesitant to hire her initially

because it's just not the tradition that they're used to.

Female students like Maddy

are gonna have to work a little harder.

If you came in and you talked to me

the way you're talking, I would think you were terrific.

I would want to hire you.

You know?

Unless you pissed me off or something. (laughing)

I think the struggle though,

the reason we're having these issues

is those are decision makers.

Those are decision makers- No question about it.

Who are looking at her, looking at me,

looking at people in this room and saying

I'm not used to a woman asking like that.

And so that means I don't like her

and I'm not gonna hire her.

And that becomes the reason we're only at 4% or 5%.

We also need to pay attention to what employers can do,

what governments can do.

This is not just about individuals.

So yes, absolutely women, you need to be prepared.

So women are getting the education. They are networking.

They're taking training and negotiation.

All of those things are necessary.

But we're not going to negotiate our way out of (laughing)

the situation, we're not gonna negotiate our way

to gender equity in the workplace.

Employers and institutions and organizations

need to be accountable for how they hire, promote,

and identify future talent and future leaders.

Well, my industry is having a hard time

figuring this out.

Federal investigators

will finally start looking into a glaring issue

that has plagued Hollywood for decades,

the lack of female directors.

The federal agency responsible

for investigating employment discrimination

is finally looking into the hiring practices

for directors in Hollywood. This has been an issue

for decades, but a new report from the Center

for the Study of Women in Television and Film

shows the numbers are getting even smaller.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

will start interviewing female directors next week

to determine if it should take legal action

against the industry.

(phone ringing tone)

How'd it go today?

It was good!

I gave a good overview of my experience.

I mean, I've directed a ton of projects.

But she asked me, have I been actually hired to direct

and I said, only, I could count on one hand how many times

I've actually been hired to direct something.

And it often involves also many other roles,

not just directing.

Right. She wanted to know

what my male colleagues have been going through.

I said "You know, all I really see"

"is that they just keep doing commercial after commercial."

"Every week they've directed another commercial."

"You know, I try to get in front of managers and agents"

"but they want you to have this much experience."

"But I don't have that experience"

"because nobody's selecting me."

She's like "Yeah, yeah."

"That seems to be what we hear a lot."

She said that the biggest learning curve

is like Hollywood isn't this structured environment,

it's not if this then that, if this then that.

It's like this mystical place

where who are the deciders, who makes the decisions,

you know, how does the industry run?

And it's like truthfully

it's got so many different elements to it,

and there are biases that exist

in every single step, you know?

Yeah.

Of course you know.

(Mom sighing)

Well I'm glad you went.

I'm glad you shared your story

because I think they need to have the perspective

of a young filmmaker to realize

that she has to go around the system

and not use the system because it's not working for her.

Yeah.

(hard rock music)

♪ Kill me gently ♪

♪ Kill me slow ♪

♪ Whisper, whisper ♪

♪ So I don't know ♪

So what are you supposed to do?

Such a complex question.

Because there are a couple different fronts to this battle.

First of all we often see them saying oh well,

maybe the women just need to be more confident.

Or maybe the women need to be this or that.

And we sort of look at that as saying,

well maybe what you're saying is women are somehow broken.

Yeah. OK,

which we don't subscribe to at all.

So now let's say you're a CEO of a company.

Done. Done, OK.

Yeah.

CEO owns the organization, or any leader

and you care about this.

You want your culture to be inclusive.

You want everybody to come to work

and really be collaborative there, right?

You also know as a CEO

that you've got these business processes, right?

You know how people are recruited.

You know how they are promoted.

You know how tasks get assigned.

These processes are either explicitly stated

or they're implicit which means

they just kinda happen as the way things are around here.

So advice number one to CEOs is,

make those processes explicit, right?

Make them explicit, and then inspect them

to see where unconscious bias could play a role.

Yeah.

So, they have to take a systems approach.

That's the only way it's really gonna work.

I can't help but feel that

since we don't have enough women

in leadership positions, then certain issues

won't be top of mind.

When corporate women start their careers today,

they make up almost half of the workforce.

Once women reach higher level positions though,

their levels drop significantly.

So it's clear to me that the men who are there

need to make gender equity a priority.

There's a long list of things that I now am aware of.

And there's a smaller set of things

when I see something, I try to do something about it.

The unconscious bias for example of women

in organizational constructs

feeling like they can't collaborate with other women

because they need to get ahead and it's a zero sum game.

Think about a meeting where you've got a group of men

sitting around a table.

Now put one woman at the table.

And that woman at the table often is run over

by the men at the table.

And the harder she fights to get a voice

the more oppressed she feels.

Put two women at the table.

And oftentimes you see this dynamic

where the women are measuring against each other.

It's not until you get three women at the table

where all of a sudden the dynamic changes again.

Another example is men talking over women.

Well, for starters, I try not to do it myself.

So I try to lead by example

by being very conscious of it.

And when I do it, which happens, I back off very quickly.

That can be done with other men

who are talking over women as well.

So, I'll notice a woman wants to say something

and I'll notice the same guy continually talking over her.

And at some point, what I'll do is literally say,

like this, while looking at the woman, I'll say,

hang on a second, let me hear what she has to say.

Brad supports me in many different ways

both by saying he thinks I'm doing a great job.

But he also supports me in other contexts

that I think are more subtle.

Sarah is the CEO of Moz

which is one of Brad's invested companies.

I was in a meeting with him

and a bunch of other C-level executives

and CEOs of his companies, spoke up,

said something about it.

And then the conversation moved on to someone else.

And Brad

actually interrupted a few minutes later

to pause the group and he said, "I just want to stop"

"for a minute and recognize what Sarah said a minute ago"

"because she said XY and Z."

And, really, it showed he was listening.

And then he sort of validated it

by saying how important it was.

And by doing that very subtle thing, right?

He was sort of bestowing some of the expertise

and the gravitas that people sort of attribute to him

and he gave a little to me.

So I think it was one of his very subtle ways

of saying, she's important and what she says matters.

And we shouldn't overlook it.

(light music)

You can't look at an underrepresented group

and say, if you just fix yourself.

I mean, we have to change the system.

We have to change the organizations.

Both of you are minorities.

What's a minority?

It's a group of people who have to work

twice as hard in life to get half as far.

And Denise, you a Black woman,

so you gonna have to work three times as hard.

I know that's right. Mm hmm.

Not all women are seeing the same kind of progress

at the same rate.

Asian American women and white women

oftentimes do better than African American

and Hispanic women do.

That disadvantage is really problematic.

Issues of race, we have to be thinking

about those along with gender in a more integrated way.

People are basically taking a cupcake

and sprinkling sprinkles on top of it

saying it's now diverse, but you can't do that.

It needs to be with the flour and in the core mix.

If diversity and inclusion are not priorities

in the core culture of your company, you are doing it wrong.

Advocating for young leaders, women leaders,

diverse leaders is critical

to getting diverse leadership at the top.

Diverse leadership leads to more profitable companies

and a better return on investment

and a larger increase in shareholder value.

And at every level produces better financial results.

We try to pick women of color

in addition to people who are white,

in addition to men of color as well.

And I think it's also constantly going to companies

and be like look, you need to make a conscious effort

and actively look for qualified, diverse candidates.

They're out there, they're a lot harder to find,

but you will do better as a company

if you diversify your company.

And there's no like one solution for everything.

You know, there's so much intersectionality between race

and sexuality and gender that if we approach everything

like, OK, we just want 50/50,

it's not gonna work in so many of these areas.

So we have to have awareness,

and we have to bring minorities in at the table

and figure out, like, what's affecting you,

how do we make this work?

How do we change this?

So, I don't think it's like a one size fits all.

Mm hmm. We need to make sure

we're understanding that even within the group of women

in the workplace, they experience different realities

based on certain situations.

(phone ringing tone)

Hello? Hey again.

Hello!

Me and Chris have started to look for a house

'cause I'm now pregnant.

We're really wanting to find our starter home

to bring our little one home to.

Aww!

Lily, my best friend from college

is now about to have her own little person.

And I'm over here still trying to keep one plant alive.

It's crazy, it's awesome!

Right, I mean I'm super excited.

A little bit of a surprise, but a happy surprise.

I don't know, right now, I'm excited, but I'm also anxious

about when do I tell people, 'cause I haven't told

my job yet and I'm actually a little bit nervous

to tell my job, because I'm trying to go for a promotion.

And I just, I don't know how they're gonna react and...

Keep quiet for now. Really push for the promotion.

Really make sure that that's lined up.

Just to make sure that they can't try to back out of it.

So right now you feel like

having this baby is going to affect your work.

Having a baby won't affect my work,

but I know it's going to affect the perception

that others have on me being able to achieve my work.

Did you ever feel, before having kids,

were you ever fearful?

'Cause I'm fearful.

My husband and I want to have kids but I'm scared

that if I go down that road,

I'm gonna give up everything

and have to start all over again.

And I'm gonna be disadvantaged 'cause of my skin color

gender, blah, blah, blah. Now you're a mom.

Did you ever have that, yeah?

No, I think because you said,

oh I felt at a disadvantage 'cause of my skin color,

because of my accent because I'm a woman,

well add mom to the list.

It doesn't make a difference. (laughing)

I've worked so hard to get where I am

and I don't want to get sent back to square one

because I'm pregnant! What do you mean

you're taking over my job?

Well while you were on your baby vacation

I was doing your job. A vacation?

My idea of a vacation does not involve

something sucking on my nipples until they are raw.

(audience laughing)

I have to stand closer to you?

(laughing)

It's not uncommon for you to hear

that after a woman has gotten pregnant

she goes on maternity leave and she doesn't return.

And, actually the only two women at this startup

that have ever been pregnant and gone on maternity leave,

so far it was 100% non-return rate.

Recently, I discovered that they're trying to keep

from having to pay me paid holidays on maternity leave.

That's great.

That's four holidays that I would've gotten

on maternity leave.

So that's almost a week worth of pay

that I thought I'd be getting

that I'm not gonna be getting now.

How's that gonna affect you money-wise?

It's a week that I will probably have to go back

earlier to work because I can't afford to stay out.

It's kind of a crappy situation.

They've stuck to what legally they have to do.

And that is continuing my medical benefits,

that's under FMLA, they have to do that.

They have to allow me 12 weeks off.

There is nothing they're doing over and beyond

what the law requires them to do.

And that law is very limited.

That's probably why those other girls never came back.

They probably had this frustrating experience

and said you know what?

I don't want want to work for that company anymore.

I mean, if while on maternity leave

you get no support from your company,

you probably don't feel as much urgency or loyalty

to come back to them. Yeah!

I'm already in this situation

I can't go and find a new job

that'll give me better benefits now, I'm about to pop.

There's no other option, so... (laughing)

Family leave, childcare, workplace flexibility,

a decent wage, these are not frills

they are basic needs. (cheering)

They shouldn't be bonuses,

they should be part of our bottom line as a society.

That's what we're striving for!

(cheering)

This is just an issue for all of us to be concerned about

for families, for men and women. (laughing)

Men also have children, surprise, surprise.

And, so we need to stop treating it

as some sort of special thing we do for women

or that women need.

Because it will never become a priority

once it's framed in that way.

I'm hungry. OK, what would you like?

I'm not hungry. You're not hungry, OK.

So, I was one of the first women at Moz

to get pregnant and have the baby

and then be a new mom in the office.

And I was probably seven or eight months pregnant.

I had a meeting and then after the meeting

someone came into my office and was like

"Wow, Sarah, are you OK?"

"Like what happened in that meeting? You were really upset."

I was like "What are you talking about?"

"I wasn't upset at all."

They were like "You looked really upset."

And then I thought about it and I realized

that Jack had been kicking like crazy, like pummeling

like he sometimes does.

In future meetings I would announce at the beginning of it,

if I make a funny face, please it is not you

I just can't control...

I don't know when I'm about to get kicked and wince, right?

I just rolled with it. And, here he comes now. (laughing)

(Jackson talking indistinctly)

In the new space that we have,

because I had my experience as a new mom,

I prioritized getting a wellness room in there.

It's something you kind of have to experience

before you can really appreciate

why you need so much infrastructure to do this,

why you need a sink, why you need a refrigerator,

why the chair has to be very comfortable,

why it has to be quiet, the level of privacy you need.

We don't just talk about women are welcome at work

and families are welcome at work,

but we actually do something about it.

I'm getting dressed!

Yeah you are, you're really handsome.

I'm gonna help you with this.

This seems to be a huge aspect to all of this.

Having more leaders who see firsthand

what their female employees need will help women

stay more connected to their work and personal lives.

(Jackson speaking indistinctly)

And most importantly, they won't feel

like they have to make a choice.

(laughing) Right?

Whoa. Whoa, careful, huh.

I think most organizations are understanding

that this is an important factor to address

in order to be successful.

The ones that haven't figured that out

are probably not going to be able to compete.

SAS is a global tech company

voted by Fortune Magazine as one of the top places

to work because of their supportive work environment.

We've had daycare for over 20 some years.

The first female software developer that was struggling

with balancing having a new child

and whether she wanted to stay at home

with that new child or to further her career,

we took that concern off the table

by providing daycare for her. Hey! (vocalizing)

We feel that if we keep our employees happy

and meet their needs,

they're going to keep our customers happy.

It's a culture of trust, a culture of trust and flexibility.

And that benefits all whether you are a man or a woman.

That cultural shift has to happen as well.

It's not on us to change everything.

Like, you can only get so far with, like, willpower.

Yeah!

You need someone to open the door.

Yeah. Yeah. (laughing)

What do you think makes you different?

What makes you different than the women

who didn't or couldn't get this far?

I'm not sure it's about me,

and about me being different but rather other people

believing in me and giving me the opportunity.

I've been blessed, I mean I really have.

I've been blessed with bosses who have believed in me,

afforded me the opportunity,

who intentionally would put me in jobs

that I didn't feel as though I had the background,

and they did it on purpose because they knew

that it would stretch me as an individual

and would help me to grow.

I don't think everyone has those kind of bosses

or even mentors who challenge you

to get out of your comfort zones.

You need someone who's also going to the people

who are hiring and saying, hire this person,

going to bat for you.

What we really need are sponsors.

Sponsorship is simply the act of someone

being willing to put their name on you,

to advocate for you for a role.

You want people to spend significant political capital

on your career, and I'm not saying

just trust in the system.

Because like I told you, the cultures are biased.

And so having that special sponsor

who's gonna overcome some of those things for you

and move you along is extremely important

when we're talking about cultures with unconscious bias.

Someone that saw something in me was a sponsor

when I actually was trying to make a transition

saying, OK, I'm hitting all gears, right,

in regards to my career being successful.

I'm gonna be the only one that's a mom at this level

working part time.

And somebody had to put their political capital and said

"Emily can still be successful working part time"

"even though we haven't seen anyone do it yet."

That to me is also a mentor that turned into a sponsor.

And, I think that's the same as investing in someone.

So, what happens when we

actually ask for that help?

I'm gonna have a career of, uh, pitching myself constantly.

And so, I'm ready to start approaching financiers.

Every time you make a movie

it's a whole other fundraising aspect,

getting people to believe in you.

Is there something that you encourage?

Any advice in that sense?

I'm happy to advocate for funding the film,

if you have a Kickstarter campaign...

Yeah.

Making noise about it,

telling people why I think they should participate.

Tell him how much to finish.

You did the budget the other day.

Um...

If we go with the real...

funded, funded budget... Don't apologize!

What do you want? I know, I know!

What do you need? I regret already doing that.

Tell him what you need. What do you need?

I need to be more confident about saying the dollar.

Well I'd be more confident about saying the dollar,

but let's break it down, you already have a network

of perspective funders

and an extended network of those perspective funders

that they bring to the table.

I'll provide some funding.

Thanks for asking, that's the first time you've asked.

You actually haven't asked me yet.

(laughing) I haven't! OK?

Ashley, ask him right now.

Will you help us?

Absolutely. Thank you. (laughing)

Right? Were you rolling?

You're rolling. Yeah.

You know.

The punchline is though, you asked.

Don't be afraid to ask. Yeah.

And I like to say you don't have to lead

with the punchline, but don't sit back

and wait for it to come to you.

Right, don't wait for the person to have to figure it out.

OK.

Done. Got it.

(upbeat rock music)

Maddy, Sophia and Iman are now at their first

statewide robotics competition.

Whoo!

(machine whirring)

Yeti!

What's happening right now in the competition?

The quarter finals. The quarter finals.

We are in the middle of the quarter finals

at the North Carolina FRC Regional-

Competition. (laughing)

OK! OK.

All right let's go!

All right, bye!

When you move a joystick it sends a signal

from the computer to this brain.

Yeah.

And then this brain sends signals

through these little wires

to the different motor controllers.

So that this guy can then pick up things.

Yes. And make points for you.

Exactly.

To get you into first place! Yes!

Yes.

Make it or break it.

Our last match is almost up, so.

(light marimba music)

They're the cogs and gears

that have integrated the community

expanding their reach and pioneering new ground

while inspiring the hearts and minds of FIRST families.

Collaborating is No Snowy Myth.

(screaming)

It's helped me...

What happened? What's happening?

(screaming)

They went to their tournament

and actually won the whole thing.

They won the highest award there.

They were so ecstatic, they were crying.

They were jumping up and down.

They couldn't believe that they actually won.

I was like, oh my gosh, my babies!

I was really, really proud of them.

(laughing) I'm gonna get emotional, I can't believe this.

It was so exciting.

(cheering)

(laughing)

(upbeat dance music)

No one single thing

will dissuade a woman or a younger woman

from pursuing a career.

But you have to think over time

all these seemingly small disadvantages

accumulate, and at some point,

it's not unreasonable that some women will say

you know what?

This is tougher than I expected.

I'm gonna choose a different path.

And so that's how we see over time

that women are falling off compared to their male peers.

Let's not fool ourselves.

There's absolutely tons of work to do still

in terms of gaining equity in the workplace.

I set out to make this film

because I didn't want to believe that this was it for me,

and for women like me. You expect in your mind

to be able to do a job and just be you

and then other people don't view it that way.

When I look in the mirror, I see an Army officer

who happens to be a woman, not a woman Army officer.

Now I've learned that we all have a role

to play in the solution.

There is bias in the culture, right, it's not you.

And it's time to take action.

To change the scorecard for the women

you have to actually change the men.

It can't be done without changing the men as well.

Men need to hold other men accountable.

And if you were feeling discouraged like I did,

I hope you see now that you are not alone.

There are a lot of people who want to do something.

Women cannot achieve equality in the workplace

or in society until there is a reckoning.

The question is how do democracies...

We must look at work-life issues as human issues.

I think one of your children's just walked in.

Not just a women's issue. Um, I would be surprised...

(dramatic music)

By spending our dollars on female-driven movies

and TV shows, we are being consciously inclusive,

and telling the Hollywood decision makers

that these stories matter.

Better yet, invest in women, their projects matter.

The aspirational goal would be that it's a non-issue

in a generation, that women are peers to men in all ways.

Your generation, I believe is the one

that's really making the transformational change.

When we change our own actions and thoughts

we've already begun to change the world.

Equal pay!

We can be the pioneers

(laughing) of change.

Pioneers! In!

Skirts! (laughing)

(rock drumbeat)

One two three, one two three, one two three.

(rock music)

I mean unless you do a cymbal crash!

♪ I'm on a freeway ♪

♪ Nothing can slow me down ♪

♪ Not even you and all the world, freeway ♪

♪ Cruisin' on my own through life ♪

♪ Now I'm my own girl ♪

(bass guitar joining the mix)

Hey. You just sang,

how do you feel?

You sang into a real microphone

in a real recording studio, how do you feel?

(laughing) I almost threw up, I was so scared.

♪ Driving down a freeway with my guitar ♪

Yeah no one's gonna be listening

to anything you say during this interview.

Sorry.

I'm laughing more because you heard it, but I felt it.

Eww!

Yeah, he's going to the bathroom.

♪ Tired of traveling ♪

♪ On the same road, I'm on a freeway ♪

♪ Nothing can slow me down not even you ♪

♪ And all the world, I'm on a freeway ♪

♪ Cruisin' on my own through life ♪

♪ Now I'm my own girl ♪

♪ I'm on a freeway ♪

♪ Nothing can slow me down ♪

♪ Not even you and all the world, I'm on a freeway ♪

Say thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching! My name is Rory by the way!

My name is Bella, by the way!

My name is Brenna!

Bye! Bye, thanks for watching!

♪ Sometimes I might fail ♪

♪ But I'll push myself up tall ♪

♪ No more easy trail ♪

♪ 'Cause now I've heard the call, the call, the call ♪

♪ I'm on a freeway ♪

♪ Nothing can slow me down ♪

♪ Not even you and all the world, I'm on a freeway ♪

♪ Cruisin' on my own through life ♪

♪ Now I'm my own girl, I'm on a freeway ♪

♪ Nothing can slow me down, not even you ♪

♪ And all the world, I'm on a freeway ♪

♪ Cruisin' on my own through life ♪

♪ Now I'm my own girl ♪