Part of my Reel Mamas Chicago Fellowship was writing articles for inclusion on their website. Reel Mamas Chicago is an organization helping women break in to and succeed in the film industry. This article was published on the Reel Mamas Chicago website on July 28. You may read it there or here.
There is no question that COVID-19 has changed everything. Everything from how we greet people to how we buy our groceries will be forever changed by this pandemic. The biggest changes that have impacted the greatest number of people are the changes to employment, and workers in the entertainment industry haven’t been spared.
The film industry has come to a complete halt, with hundreds of thousands out of jobs and most T.V. shows and movies putting pause on production. Who is this shutdown affecting the most? The workers who make up the foundation of the film industry: the production designers, camera operators, makeup artists, grips, stagehands, ticket takers, casting directors, and character actors. People who are essential to the day-to-day operation of Hollywood.
Over the past few weeks, Hollywood has started to take measures to reopen. The Hollywood union has published guidelines for starting production and filming without a COVID-19 vaccine. The first step is hiring people back; however, some people fear that all the layoffs will give Hollywood the excuse and opportunity to undo all the progress that has been made in terms of diversity.
It is no secret that the Entertainment Industry has struggled to diversify. The progress has been long and slow, but movements like #METOO, Times Up, and Black Lives Matter have aided the progress. And the newest movement, Hire Her Back, is working to continue that progress.
Hire Her Back is a multimedia campaign developed by Women in Film (WIF) that works to hold the entertainment industry accountable in their hiring process, as the data shows women, specifically Black and Latinx women, are suffering more from the pandemic’s social and economic fallout.
Hire Her Back wants more women and people of color hired as they move back into production following the shutdown caused by COVID-19. It aims to prevent Hollywood from taking advantage of all of the layoffs and using the pandemic as an excuse to hire back a less diverse workforce.
According to the Labor Department’s data for May 2020, women’s unemployment was at 13.9%. That’s two-and-a-third percentage points higher than that of men in the same time period. Hire Her Back wants to prevent what happened during the last economic crisis . After the Great Recession in 2008, women regained employment at a much lower rate than men and took longer to rebound. Without the efforts of movements of Hire Her Back, this will be doomed to happen again.
In addition to raising awareness, Hire Her Back is also setting up grants to be administered through the Actors Fund for women who have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Donation and grant applications can be accessed here.
WIF executive director Kirsten Schaffer said of the movement, “With the convergence of a pandemic and the national uprising in defense of Black lives, it must be made clear that current market structures have to be transformed if we are serious about creating equity. We call on leaders to join us in building a new normal that prioritizes equity and career sustainability for women, especially Women of Color, in the screen industries.”
It’s so important that we don’t take steps back because of the pandemic. And thanks to the efforts of movements like Hire Her Back and organizations like Women in Film, Hollywood stands a chance to come out of the COVID-19 shutdown more diverse, more inclusive, and more accepting.
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