Women in Movies

In the early years of film, women were a major force. Mary Pickford co-founded the first great director-friendly studio, United Artists, which continues today – now headed by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner (after Paramount kicked them out of their studio deal). Then, somewhere along the line – i.e. during the era of the studio system – they all but disappeared from behind the scenes action. There were still famous women actors, but even they were bound by studio contracts. Since then, we’ve never really recovered.