The Brutal Math of Gender Inequality in Hollywood

The Golden Globe Awards on Sunday provided a useful snapshot of the limitations of the #MeToo movement. Viewers gazed into a monochromatic protest against the scourge of harassment, with uniformly black dresses and suits, “Time’s Up” pins, and often inspiring speeches about standing up to abusive power.

But while host Seth Meyers filleted Hollywood’s most infamous offenders and Oprah Winfrey brought the audience to its feet with a rousing address, the brutal math of inequality lurked won the award for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, but its writer and director Greta Gerwig was curiously not nominated for Best Director. That category’s five nominees were all male. In fact, only one woman has ever won a Golden Globe for directing: Barbra Streisand, in 1984, for . At the time, Gerwig was six months old, and her film’s lead actress had not yet been born. Hollywood remains an industry where women are more likely to be celebrated for speaking out in front of a camera than for holding one.