Women in Animation Just Need a Ballsy, Single Parent, Militant Feminist, Lesbian Mother to Succeed

According to "Women in Animation", 60% of animation students are women but only 20 to 40% of professional roles in the industry are held by women. The industry seems to be a "boys' club" with "macho energy flying around". Usually, producers are women, men are directors and when a woman is a director she might "want to be more macho, speak louder or lower and make sure you’re not ‘screechy’ (...) behaving in ways that lose you energy because you’re trying to be something you’re not.”

“It is of course a matter of the total male domination in all powerful positions, that’s been going on forever.” Niki Lindroth von Bahr

Typically, “men are the creative leads and women are the jobbing crew animators or producers. Women are there to facilitate and enable the creative voice and vision of men because self-doubt is the patriarchy’s most insidious weapon.” Moving from education to career, women have “their more feminine qualities praised – nurturing, a willingness to please. It’s a restrictive pattern that upholds the status quo.” Kitty Turley

Technical roles (e.g. FX artists) are hugely male dominated: “It goes back to a time when boys were encouraged to like things such as technology and football, and girls to art and ballet dancing. These projected expectations have possibly fed into later interests and career choices. Gender roles and expectations are becoming more fluid though, which is an exciting shift.” Rosanna Morley

But there is hope since the right mother can give women the confidence they need to succeed in the animation industry. Anna Ginsburg says her upbringing by a “ballsy mother, a single parent, lesbian, militant feminist and lawyer" was quite helpful (via). Solution found.

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photograph (Disney, ca. 1969) via