Women and Hollywood

Melissa Silverstein is the founder and editor of Women and Hollywood, one of the most respected sites for issues related to women and film as well as other areas of pop culture. Women and Hollywood educates, advocates, and agitates for gender parity across the entertainment industry.

She is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Athena Film Festival. The 4th annual festival will take place from February 6-9, 2014 at Barnard College in NYC.

Melissa recently published the first book from Women and Hollywood, In Her Voice: Women Directors Talk Directing, which is a compilation of over 40 interviews that have appeared on the site.

Email Melissa

Purchase In Her Voice

Blog Roll

Watch This: See Jane Trailer from Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media

Video

Geena Davis's commitment to gender in the media is truly inspiring. See Jane, an affiliated program with her Institute on Gender in the Media, focuses specifically on making sure that children's media has a balanced and varied portrayal of female characters. The below trailer illustrates some of their research findings.

By Kerensa Cadenas
|
November 26, 2012 9:30 AM
|
0 Comments

Blogs

I am extremely ambivalent about the whole princess thing. If I never saw another princess anywhere it would be too soon. But I live in the real world and write about Hollywood and Hollywood is infused with princesses. In fact, we've got two big princess movies coming down the pike this year. This week's Mirror, Mirror and this summer's Snow White and the Huntsman. I will never forget when I heard Geena Davis talk about her research on girls and the media, and how the research showed the most girls believe they can be princesses because that is basically all that they see girls doing onscreen. Of course we all know that princess is not a job description and while there are very few princesses in real life, they seem to dominate girls lives on film.

By Melissa Silverstein
|
March 27, 2012 10:57 AM
|
21 Comments

Women, War and Peace Debuts on PBS October 11

This week in NY was the annual opening of the UN General Assembly where heads of states make their speeches. Seeing all these dudes stand up at the podium while the world is a total mess one thing is clear -- we need more women's voices involved at all levels of government and diplomacy.

By Melissa Silverstein
|
September 23, 2011 2:00 AM
|
0 Comments

Geena Davis in Conversation with Pat Mitchell

Check out this conversation of two female media icons from the Paley Center for Media.

By Melissa Silverstein
|
August 23, 2011 2:42 AM
|
0 Comments

Talking 20 Years of Thelma and Louise

Here's my interview on the BBC Scotland's Movie Cafe on the 20th Anniversary of Thelma and Louise.

By Melissa Silverstein
|
June 10, 2011 1:21 AM
|
0 Comments

Thelma and Louise - 20 Years On

In homage to its 20th anniversary, Shania Twain and Taylor Swift recreated a scene from the film that will open the Country Music Television Awards this evening. As Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon reunited in Toronto to celebrate the film to an audience of 1,800 people.

By Melissa Silverstein
|
June 8, 2011 3:15 AM
|
1 Comment

Thelma and Louise Turns 20

I can't believe that it is 20 years since Thelma and Louise was released. We still have so much work to do. This is a movie that resonated with people in a profound way, it's a movie that people still think about fondly, yet sadly it is a movie that never effected any long term change for women in Hollywood.

By Melissa Silverstein
|
May 25, 2011 2:30 AM
|
6 Comments

The White House Project - Epic Awards

Last night I attended The White House Project (an organization that I was the first director of) for their annual EPIC Awards. EPIC stands for Enhancing Perceptions in Culture and it honors how important culture is to helping people understand the value of women's leadership.

By Melissa Silverstein
|
April 8, 2011 1:25 AM
|
0 Comments

Thelma and Louise and What Could Have Been

When you spend so much time online one thing that suffers is off line reading. So, I am perpetually playing catch up to things that can't be read online. One of the pieces I just caught up with is "The Ride of a Lifetime" in the Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair which was about the making of the groundbreaking film Thelma and Louise.

By Melissa Silverstein
|
March 8, 2011 4:29 AM
|
7 Comments

Geena Davis: Gender Stereotypes Remain Deeply Entrenched in Today's Entertainment...

Yesterday, The United Nations celebrated the launch of a new agency -- UN Women -- which combines all the different women's organizations under one leader, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. The agency has a $500 million yearly budget and the goal is to press governments around the world for a "new era of gender equality."