Video summary

What Will It Take: Women and Media Full Panel

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Overview

The panel discusses how to improve women’s representation and leadership—especially in media—arguing that progress requires both cultural change and structural action.

“Girls Lounge” / Equality as Strategy

  • The first speaker frames the “Girls Lounge” concept from the World Economic Forum as a model for shifting power dynamics: when women and allies create spaces with their own rules, growth and influence follow.
  • The panelist describes how showing up at Davos and building community led to rapid expansion (invited to events/parties; growing space over multiple years), culminating in the “Girls Lounge” becoming a leading equality destination.
  • Central theme: change requires boldness, bravery, fearlessness, and collective action—“power in the pack,” not individual women alone.
  • A concrete example comes from Africa (Masai Mara communities):
    • Mothers are organizing to force changes that protect girls from forced marriage and enable education.
    • They are also moving wells closer to reduce abuse/violence on the way to fetch water.

Context and Mission: “What Will It Take”

Mary Ann Schnell (host/creator of the “What Will It Take” initiative) explains:

  • The project originated after her daughter asked a question following Barack Obama’s election: “Why haven’t you ever had a woman president?”
  • She expanded the question into a book and then into a platform designed to connect organizations and create cross-sector tools/resources for women’s leadership.
  • The broader effort includes a “Year of Women” campaign (digital + events + media) focused on women in media, politics, business/finance, sports, and wellness.

Key Partnership: “Represent Her” Campaign

The Representation Project (Jennifer Siebel Newsom) and Schnell’s work are presented as a campaign with two goals:

  1. Increase women at the highest leadership levels.
  2. Elevate women’s priorities and voices in leadership (and shift societal attitudes about what leadership should look like).

The panel also describes a video campaign:

  • Prominent women are interviewed to encourage both leadership representation and voting.
  • Content is funneled into an online hub.

Why Media Representation Matters (and How It Shapes Brains)

The panel argues that media is not just entertainment—it changes identity, behavior, and aspirations.

  • Core idea: “Media is the message and the messenger.”
    • If representation behind the camera changes, portrayals in front of the camera change.
    • Those portrayals then shape hearts and minds, especially for youth.
  • Panelists cite evidence that underrepresentation and objectification affect self-worth and ambition:
    • Girls may see limited roles.
    • Boys may absorb aggression/power norms.
  • Examples (research-style):
    • Girls take up archery after seeing female-led characters (e.g., Katniss Everdeen / Merida).
    • Young women pursue STEM after seeing science-minded characters (e.g., Dana Scully).
  • Quantitative emphasis:
    • Women—and especially women of color, queer women, and women with disabilities—remain largely absent or erased in entertainment.
    • Women are described as a minority of leading/main characters and less likely to be the focus of dialogue and coverage.
  • Time-lag argument:
    • Normalizing certain leadership imagery (e.g., Black presidents) took decades.
    • Women’s leadership imagery may be delayed by a similar timeframe.

Signs of Progress—and Why It’s Still Insufficient

Panelists acknowledge improvements in women’s on-screen presence, but argue progress is uneven and stalls in key areas:

  • Representation may rise for “female leads,” but behind-the-camera roles remain heavily male-dominated.
  • Directors/writers/producers/directing representation is described as too low to count as real structural change.
  • “One woman at the top” is not enough.
  • They argue a “tipping point” is needed for culture transformation (discussed as at least ~30% representation).

Structural Barriers: Money, Policy, and Patriarchy

Multiple systemic constraints are highlighted:

  • Pay and wealth gaps
    • Women are described as earning less and having less ownership/wealth.
  • Advertising and programming decisions
    • These choices influence who gets cast, funded, and placed.
  • Lack of supportive policies
    • Paid leave, universal preschool, and childcare are described as crucial to sustaining high-level careers for working women.

The panel frames the root obstacle as patriarchy:

  • Described as the oldest form of oppression and embedded through socialization.
  • Gender roles are argued to be constructed—not natural.
  • Boys are socialized into dominance norms and rejection of femininity for years.
  • Without deliberate intervention, that conditioning is difficult to change.

Diversity Beyond Gender: Why Hollywood Is Slow to Change

Brenda Robinson explains why diversification can feel contentious and “hard,” citing stigma and misinterpretation around affirmative action:

  • Equity policies are often misread as quotas rather than as mechanisms to open access fairly.

Proposed solutions focus on systemic levers:

  • Equal pay, wealth-gap reduction, and financial literacy
  • Childcare and flex time; paid leave
  • Diversity mandates from leadership (top-down) plus grassroots pressure (from below)
  • Investing behind the camera (storytellers, directors, funding streams)
  • Consumer and accountability tools (e.g., rating tools/grade systems for representation)
  • Legal/complaint mechanisms

Glass Ceiling vs. Labyrinth; Need for Legal and Consumer Pressure

One panelist describes leadership barriers as a “labyrinth” that begins early:

  • Girls are discouraged from leadership.
  • Girls are evaluated differently once in leadership roles (role incongruity).

They argue progress requires enforcement:

  • Hollywood has not consistently complied with anti-discrimination responsibilities, with references to investigations and lawsuits.

Consumer activism is also emphasized:

  • Since purchasing decisions are influenced by content, audiences can pressure studios by supporting better representation.

Call to Action: What Will It Take?

The panel’s combined message is a multi-level agenda:

  • Start cultural change at home
    • Teach children that women can lead.
    • Avoid “either/or” stereotypes.
  • Media and corporations
    • Treat representation as both a business and a moral imperative.
  • Allies must participate
    • Especially men in leadership advocating for systemic change.
  • Demand concrete commitments
    • Targets like 50/50 leadership, inclusion riders, equal pay.
  • Keep organizing and applying pressure
    • Share campaigns, join mailing lists/hubs, and continue public accountability efforts.

Presenters / Contributors

  • Mary Ann Schnell
  • Jennifer Siebel Newsom
  • Carolyne Heldman
  • Brenda Robinson
  • Shelley (host; referenced as “Shelley”)
  • Ellen (speaker; discussed playing female leaders on television and her background)
  • Jennifer’s Evil Newsom (same as Jennifer Siebel Newsom; mentioned in acknowledgments)
  • Fred Fenster (named as a sponsor/ally mentioned by one panelist)

Original video