Happy International Women’s Day.
It’s no secret that the animation industry is a boys club. According to data from L.A studios “In 2006, men made up 84% of the animation workforce, whereas roles filled by women totalled 16%. In 2015, men make up 80% and roles filled by women still only total 20%.”
Now considering it was a fairly unpopular movie when it came out, I have to assume not many readers saw Pixar’s Brave when it hit theaters in 2012. This is unfortunate for many reasons. The main reason being it is Pixar’s first female main character, Princess Merida, and first female director, Brenda Chapman.
2012. First female director. Seems a bit late, don’t you think? But what’s worse? She was kicked off a story which was so deeply personal to her. Similarly to my Star Wars post, the major corporation Disney (who already owned Pixar at this point) fucked over another Lead Creative and fired her off her own story. She is still credited as director but ultimately Brave ended up being directed by Mark Andrews, a Pixar vet having worked on Ratatouille and The Incredibles.
“We are replaced on a regular basis — and that was a real issue for me. This was a story that I created, which came from a very personal place, as a woman and a mother. To have it taken away and given to someone else, and a man at that, was truly distressing on so many levels.” – Brenda Chapman, 2012
It’s frustrating to see how frequently this happens to women in the industry whether their position is undermined because of their femininity or taken away from them completely for not engaging entirely with a male centric point of view and direction.
My point is not to defend Brave as a movie; I can admit, while it was beautiful, there was a lot wrong with it. My point is to defend women’s right to direct and learn from their mistakes. Not remove them from movies they put their heart into when it doesn’t go the way male executives want it to.
Only 3% of animated film directors over the last 12 years were women, while 13% of episodes evaluated across popular animated TV programs from 2018 had female directors. Only one female film director and three female TV directors were women from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds. – USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative
With these harrowing statistics it is easy to be disheartened, especially as a woman entering the industry within a matter of years. But the good news from all of this is that the Inclusion Initiative is partnering with Women in Animation and they have a goal of 50/50 by 2025. It’s my hope that this inclusion act will focus on racially and gender-identity diverse women too.
With any luck at all, I hope the future of animation is female.
Sources:
https://www.animationmagazine.net/events/women-in-animation-announces-2019-siggraph-summit/
https://womeninanimation.org/press/
https://variety.com/2015/film/festivals/annecy-women-animation-marge-dean-kristy-scanlan-1201522706/
Art vs Commercialization 
Great statistics to include but truly discouraging. I still have a bone to pick with the 50/50 by 2025? Why five years? Sometimes I struggle with social change deadlines, thoughts?
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Interesting data outlined here, but I think it needs additional data to analyze against the proportion of men/women animation majors or the proportion of men/women who seek to enter the animation field. If there is a large discrepancy between the proportion of women seeking and then entering the animation field versus the proportion of men seeking and then entering the animation field, then there is definitely something to be said in changing how women are perceived in the animation industry. However, if the root of the problem is that women are simply not seeking to enter the animation industry nearly as much as men, then perhaps the true issue stems from institutions, society, biology, and all related to what makes someone want to enter a certain career in the first place. Just my two cents :). Interesting facts regardless of anything else
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Hi Josie! Really great statistic included in this post. They definitely help to directly highlight a big, but unfortunately common, issue across many industries. I enjoyed the gifs/pictures you included as well. It’s pretty disappointing to find out, though, that a director can just be tossed aside so easily, especially when it’s her own project. Thanks for sharing this insight.
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