Where are the women??

[Tim Ribich]

In all the time I've been a member here, I don't recall seeing many (any?) posts by women. For that matter, most other video related info sites I've visited are also dominated by males. Not sure how representative these casual observations might be of the video industry as a whole, but would it be fair to say that it is indeed an arena that just doesn't attract that many women?

If that's the case, I wonder why...

[Mark Watson]

How about on big Hollywood productions, ever heard of a woman DOP?

With all the gear I carry around, I can see why women don't take up this hobby. But still photography, I think you can find many women are into that. Personally, I think women prefer to be on the other side of the lens, not that there's anything wrong with that.

If nothing else read that book, "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus". The answer might be in there.


Mark

[Seth Bloombaum]

Having been around the industries a while, I can tell you that women are there in technical and production disciplines, making great contributions, many highly qualified, some with greater physical capability than their male counterparts.

But really, not very many.

With Producers, line producers, location scouts, talent scouts, coordination of all kinds on larger productions, the numbers get better.

Looking at enrollment in college programs in this upper left corner of the country, the numbers get better still.

You're right, we don't see many female contributors to the forums here.

[Allan Black]

From my experience with videocamera sites, many females are very much smarter than us males by saving time in looking up the archives
to find the answer to their camera questions.

So there are good numbers of women in our visitors, they don't need to join up :)

Cheers ladies (doffs hat :)

[Colin McDonald]

Of course, there's always this one who featured here recently:

How To Capture Quality Audio on Vimeo

(Best appreciated with the sound off)

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Colin McDonald

...(Best appreciated with the sound off)

Are you seriously suggesting that we appreciate her looks and pay no attention to the content offered?

Granted, there is some misinformation in this clip: "if it's too loud, move the mic further away", "lowering the recording volume until you don't see room noise deflecting the meter gets rid of room noise in the recording"...

I started out when most opportunities were really for men only. Now, overt gender discrimination in employment in the U.S. is wrong *and* illegal. There are more subtle acts of bias, however, that inform women that they aren't welcome, or that being cute or dressing in an appealing way is more important than knowing the job.

Me personally, I believe in leveling the playing field.

[Iker Riera]

i own a production company here in Venezuela with my girlfriend and we share the work almost equally most of the time. She knows how to edit, shoot, work audio, etc. But i'm usually the one always on forums and blogs.

Here she is by the way in one episode of a series of videos we do together, it's in Spanish with English subtitles available.

Yardbless Pro Shooter - Magic Lantern 2.3 Overview - YouTube

[Chris Harding]

Hi Guys

Quite a few ladies do events (especially weddings) so they do pop up from time to time and they really are out there.

I would probably guess that women are less "tech heads" than guys so they simply get on with the shoot and don't find the need to discuss complex technical issues that don't concern them.

I have often seen Katie chime in on issues that affect event shoots in the Wedding forum

Chris

[John Nantz]

On another site with a board that I frequent, www.sailboatowners.com, there are a few women that post frequently. Unfortunately, one of them ("The Head Mistress") recently got married and "retired" out of the forum. She was the go-to person if you ever had a question about what's wrong, or how to fix, what to replace with, etc., the head on your boat. (for landsubbers, that's the nautical term for WC). Another gal works with her husband promoting his Solar Stick solar panel support. She has one thread that's over 1,000 posts long (found in the "Off Topic/Sails Call Lounge).

We've got a few people locally who are interested in forming a video club and there is at least one woman who is anxious to see it started. She also has her own web site with some of her videos on it.

Now that summer is drawing to a close and the outdoor events aren't causing distractions this is going to be a real possibility. One of the members-to-be has almost finished a full-length movie video and they plan to show it near the end of October.

On another note.....

Originally Posted by Seth Bloombaum

I started out when most opportunities were really for men only. Now, overt gender discrimination in employment in the U.S. is wrong *and* illegal. There are more subtle acts of bias, however, that inform women that they aren't welcome, or that being cute or dressing in an appealing way is more important than knowing the job.

Me personally, I believe in leveling the playing field.

Far be it from me to be, ahem, 'sexist' or the like, but the last two days I've been frequenting Home Depot (for non USA/Canadian citizens, this is a building supply store) and picking up bags of sand and drain gravel. These "only" weigh 60-pounds/27kg and at the checkout I noted that "Hey, why is it only the GUYS who help me load this stuff into my vehicle."

Come to find out, today, the "guys" who load this stuff get paid LESS than the gals at the checkout!

I drive off and leave the cashier and "yard boy" to discuss this.....
Or should that be "yard 'person'"?

It would be much nicer, I think, if there were more women submitting posts. Would advertising "FREE" membership help??? (that word usually gets my wife's attention)

[Josh Bass]

From my freelance production work I can tell you that, for whatever reason, women seem to end up in certain production positions and men seem to end up in other certain production positions, MOST of the time. Why? Who knows? Maybe something in the ol' brain wiring of each gender draws them to some disciplines and not others.

I have seen A, as in exactly one, female grip/electrician (hard to tell which is which sometimes) that I can remember. A, as in one, female camera assistant. A, as in one, female videographer/DP. I don't work on gigs with ADs much at all, but one female AD.

Lots of makeup artists (never seen a guy), script supervisors, producers, craft services, prompter operators (something I do myself).

No female sound mixers. Maybe a few in post positions.

This is off the top of my head. Why? Again, who knows?

[Noa Put]

I"ve seen a lot of women doing wedding Photography but have not seen one doing wedding videography in my country the past 8 years and all that I know of that have an online presence (with a wedding website) are men as well.
My wife does photography on a semi professional level and she owns some decent photo gear and she uses photoshop/lightroom to process her photo's. She also like to film but for that she has a waterproof hd pocket cam to film our dogs when she goes walking with them, or to film her guinee pigs and then to just post this without any editing on dog or guinee pigs forums. :)
Men tend to get all excited when a new camera is at the horizon and they get a kick out of all the technical details and I think woman just go out and shoot, but it looks to me they like to keep it simple with just a camera, a lens and a flash, with video we all know there is often much more to it if you are using seperate audio recorders, tripods, monopod, sliders, steadicams, cranes, well, you get the picture. My wife would never carry around so much gear as I do on a wedding, she just has one backpack which fits all she needs.

[Josh Bass]

Oh yeah, duh, my long-suffering girlfriend is a photographer. Don't know how I forgot that. And of course I've seen other stills-ettes.

But I think simply saying that they like stills over video because the equipment load is physically much lighter (if that's what I'm seeing suggested) is a bit silly. Surely passion for the craft of capturing images in motion would overcome the mundane obstacle of weight.

whatever it is, must run much deeper.

[Noa Put]

whatever it is, must run much deeper.

That's why we never understand women :) I"ll ask my wife, see what see has to say about it.

[Noa Put]

My wife said that whenever she is taking photo's at music festivals and she sees other male photographers they always want to know what type of lenzes she is using but that woman photogs never ask that :) So I think I got it right when I say men are much more into the technical side of shooting video or photo.

You can also ask why women hardly play soccer, in Belgium we do have woman soccer teams and this year I did a wedding where the bride, who was a lawyer, was also captain of a girls soccerteam in her free time. It's not that they are not physical capable to play soccer, but the nature of that sport does not seem to interest them that much, same goes for bicycle riding (like tour de France) or motorcross etc and I guess that applies for professional video as well. There are allways exceptions to the rule but men will always outnumber woman by a great amount when it comes to these type of activities which might explain why we only see a few women here.

When I said they don't like to carry all that equipment with them at weddings I didn't mean they are are not fysical capable of doing so but it seems to me that they focus more on capturing the emotion of the day and don't need all that extra stuff for it, just the camera.

[Simon Wood]

Go over to the UWOL section of this site and you will find many women working away on different projects.

Lorinda Norton is busy organizing the competition (both UWOL and helping with the DV Challenge).
Ruth Happel has an entry in the UWOL 24 that is running right now.
Toni Dolce narrated and edited an entry in UWOL 24 shot by Andrew Bove. Andrew probably decided to get on her good side as she infamously said (after the last DV Challenge):

"Fellows, it may be a little early to start the trash-talking, but next competition you are going down. DOWN!!
Mark my words, a woman is going to take the next round. Ruth....it's me or you!!"

Watch your backs gentlemen.