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As Field pointed out, the bedrock challenge is that women get fewer substantive roles than men. Ironically, that's obscured by the artificial parity on stage each year at awards shows. Five women compete, five men compete, two winners are crowned. So what's the problem? A quick numbers check makes it clear: Females comprised about a third of the characters in the 100 top-grossing films in 2011, according to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University. This, despite the fact women make up slightly more than half of the U.S. population. And the finding isn't an anomaly, according to the center's past research. In this context, feminist leader Steinem sees legitimate reason to retain separate acting awards. When two unequal groups are combined it's the less-powerful one that loses, she said, as when 20th-century U.S. school desegregation lead to mass layoffs of black principals and administrators. Hollywood, often viewed as staunchly progressive, shows no indication of abandoning tradition in the awards arena. The Oscars Awards, a reflection of their time, launched in the 1920s with his-and-hers acting trophies (for Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor) and stuck with the formula. Television showed its modernity by kicking off the Emmy Awards in 1949 with a gender-neutral trophy for best TV personality
-- which was won by a woman, Shirley Dinsdale, according to Emmy archives. Following Oscar's lead, however, the Emmys quickly added separate actor-actress contests in 1951. A best reality host category, begun in 2008, is open to men and women. Tom O'Neil, editor of the Gold Derby awards prediction site, said strong forces are arrayed against change. Awards shows routinely try to add celebrity-driven categories, not drop them, to increase a show's "glamor and glitz" quotient, he said, as well as mask the industry's unequal treatment of women. "It's criminal," he said, bluntly. In the behind-the-scenes film and TV categories in which the sexes compete, women rarely make it on stage at awards ceremonies. The Oscars started in 1929, but it wasn't until 2010 that the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, was honored as best director (for "The Hurt Locker"). Statistics again provide clarity: Women made up a paltry 9 percent of the directors on 2012's top-grossing films, a new San Diego State University study found. Let's give two-time Oscar winner Field the last word in this debate. Actresses "should be in their own category because they ARE in their own category," she said. "They face their own specific kind of difficulties surviving in this business that actors, bless their hearts, don't face."
[Associated
Press;
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