A BuzzFeed News analysis found that women directed 12% of the highest-rated scripted shows, even as advocates say women and men are graduating from film school at the same rate. “It’s absolutely a problem,” one director said.

Women have largely been shut out of directing the most popular television shows of the past several years, according to a BuzzFeed News analysis, underscoring the American Civil Liberties Union’s recent call for government investigations into the film and television industry’s hiring practices.

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Women directed only 4 percent of top-grossing films over the last dozen years. While it is a shame, is it also illegal?

Melissa Goldman, director of the LGBT Gender and Reproductive Justice Project at the ACLU of Southern California, is weighing this very question. She’s calling on state and federal agencies to investigate the hiring practices of major Hollywood studios, networks and talent agencies to see whether gender discrimination is in play when recruiting and hiring female directors.

Goldman and television director Tawnia McKiernan both join host Alex Cohen to discuss the issue of gender bias in Hollywood.

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TNH Member, Tawnia McKiernan, shares with us about her latest philanthropic passion and exciting projects she is undertaking.

Five Acres is a privately owned adoption agency that for 125 years has cared for vulnerable children and their families. Originally founded in downtown LA as an orphanage, their initial mission was simply to provide safety to children who had no home… [read more]