In a fascinating interview with women leaders in the film industry on Salon, the director, Kimberly Peirce, stated that “you can’t get bonded if you’re pregnant.” Translation: you can’t get insured and therefore can’t make a movie if you are pregnant. Seriously! It surprised the heck out of me and some of the other directors on the panel as well.
It surprised me so much in fact, that I chose to track down a company that insures movies to see how they responded to the idea that women are somehow not insurable when they’re pregnant. Well, of course they can, in theory be insured, but it turns out that they need to qualify for secondary insurance without exemptions first. Which I can only assume is more than difficult.
Pregnancy as a state of ill health has been used to keep women out of the workforce for years. In the 1950’s women who were married were often not chosen for jobs over single women, because the married ones were assumed that they would get pregnant and be unable to work.
As a director, if you are unable to work while pregnant, that is a year out of what is likely a young career, since it is less likely that a woman in her 50’s would be getting pregnant, although it is possible. This is while a male director, who can’t get pregnant and is not at all limited by his biology, is able to go right along with his career.
This highlights the tenaciousness of the glass ceiling. The glass ceiling used to be obvious. Women weren’t allowed to do certain jobs, so we knew where the line was drawn. Now the lines are fuzzy. Some female directors feel the need to choose between being a mother and having the career they want. Male directors don’t have to feel the same pressure. They don’t get pregnant. According to the women interviewed, most have found it a huge challenge to be both a mother and a director.
Women haven’t progressed as much as we should have toward equality, but it’s at least positive that women are directors now. That in itself was a long time coming.
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