The Role of Women in Film and Television

The film License to Thrive depicts the importance of the Title IX law since its acceptance on June 23, 1972. Title IX’s purpose is to give a more equal opportunity to women in educational environments. Although that was the bills main focus, it has mostly been linked to the increase in women’s athletics. The sports programs have increased exponentially in both lower and higher level educational facilities. Despite the fact that most people put solely women’s athletics and Title IX together, there have been numerous personal and professional programs that help to give young women a better chance at a successful future. These programs work at the advancement of women in the business world, as well as helping young women achieve their dreams.

The Three Prong Test serves as a guideline to make sure that schools are complying with the Title IX objectives. Each school is only obligated to follow one of the three prongs. Two of the prongs are related, again, only to athletics: proportionality and the support and creation of women’s teams. The last prong requires an institution to continue offering and even expanding opportunities to women, such as scholarships. This stipulation has increased academic openings for young women in their given fields of work. These scholarships and programs are supposed to allow equality for men and women. However, this hasn’t been the case in certain programs.

‘Girls in the Directors Chair’ is one of the examples that License to Thrive references. It has recently been implemented to open the film and television field to women. It has also been used to further women’s education in terms of media projects. The program works with two teams of young women. Each group of girls is flown out to LA to learn and work on how to make a movie. The movies for each of the groups is posted on an Internet website. There is a worldwide vote held to decide which group is the winner of the competition.

In the future, I believe that this program will have a greater impact. However at this point, it is no secret that the film and television industry is swarming with white male directors. “Of the 85 or so live action flicks released by the big studios in 2009, 93% were directed by white men,” says a New York Times reporter. This shows that the progress of the Title XI influenced film and television programs have not yet made the impact they are expected to make. While directing is mainly male based, the acting population includes a wide diversity. If that were the point of the ‘Girls in the Directors Chair’ organization then they would have a great success rate.

The program could be made on a wider scale. This would increase its notoriety and would make the competition a bigger learning experience. Adding more groups and pumping up the advertisement for the competition would allow for more influence and serve the purpose of the group. The group would also have the opportunity to reach out to more young women.