Men vs. Women: The eternal battle

Today, I had a conversation about whether women should only hire women to work on their films.

It’s a tough question. So I’d like to pose another question…should men only hire men to work on their films?

Ah, but that’s already happening. So should we pull the old “they did it first” or are we stronger than that?

I’m on the fence most of the time and my conversation reflected this quandary.  Hence me rambling here…with no beverage in hand. Just plain honest ramble to follow-up on my earlier back and forth ramble (mostly with myself) in the conversation earlier today.

Of course, I want women to have more opportunity in the film industry. (I want that in the corporate world as well, but we’ll stick with this conversation for now or else we will all either be drunk, stoned, overly caffeinated or sugared up – depending on your choice of poison – before the night is through and that isn’t going to help – as fun as it may be.)

I want to treat others as I want to be treated.

So, my answer is simply hire the best person for the job. Period. Then I think – will people think I don’t want to help women by giving them a leg up? I must be a horrible person.

Is it horrible to want women who are ready for the job to be treated equally but not screw over our male counterparts in the process by discounting the men and only hiring the women even if the skill set is not there yet?

“BUT WAIT” – I know, I know…you are now thinking “but how can women move ahead if they are not given the opportunity to learn, Shari? Don’t you see you’re just making the situation worse?” (Okay maybe you are not thinking this, but the other voice in my head is. I’m complicated…) What I don’t want is for women to be hired that are not ready for the job as this will hurt their careers and the project they are working on.

I personally think (and know) that there are plenty of women out there right now who are qualified for the jobs, just like there are men.

So, I think hire the person who has the qualifications AND gets your project, connects to it.

Then I hear, only women understand films written by women, directed by women, etc. But then does that mean that only men can understand films written and directed by men? This is what got us in this mess in the first place.

I don’t have an answer, but just wanted to put these thoughts “on paper” (virtual paper) as I’m still figuring out how to balance it all. How do we help each other out as women without cutting ourselves off from 49% of the population – many of whom are incredibly talented people we might all want to work with?

It is an eternal conundrum.