(reporter) Progress for women has stalled out -over the last decade.

-I was shocked by this.

I really thought we'd come further.

(reporter) We're moving in the wrong direction.

(woman) We've spent decades trying to fit women into a work world built for company men.

(woman) Conventional advice to women in 40 years hasn't closed the gender gap at the top and won't close it.

(woman) Our daughters are facing the same issues that we faced early in our career.

(mellow music) ♪ (Ashley) You're gonna be in the middle.

Let me have my actresses surround her on this side and this side.

You can say "speeding" or "rolling."

-Rolling!

-Take one.

(girl) Action!

(gasping, laughing) -All right, say, "Cut."

-Cut!

(Ashley) Well, you know what they do in the film industry.

They make it so you have to hire a girl because it's become such a problem.

-Are you joking?

-Mm-mm.

(girl) How hard was it to become a filmmaker being a girl?

Because, like, there are not many girl directors.

(Ashley) Has it been difficult?

Yeah.

Becoming a director in the film industry is probably one of the most difficult jobs because what you're trying to do is prove to people that your voice matters.

So not only am I in an industry where I'm trying to prove myself for the job in general, I'm also a woman who isn't taken seriously very often.

Has anyone ever experienced something like that before?

And that's actually the reason why I'm making this documentary because I got fed up with people assuming I didn't know what I was doing, or, "She's only here because she's a woman.

That's the only reason she got here, because she's a woman."

I know I'm gonna be a filmmaker.

There's no other choice for me.

I know I am a filmmaker, and there's no other choice for me.

Okay.

(laughter) I wondered, what will happen when they grow up?

Well, the same thing happening to women today if we don't do something now.

-Girl Scouts!

-Girl Scouts!

(Ashley) Studies show women start out pioneering in their careers.

They actually lead men in ambition.

But it only takes two years for that confidence they have in their potential for career success to plummet by more than 60 percent.

Only two years.

And this happened to me.

I had to understand what are those challenges robbing women of their ambition, how do we identify them, and how do we put an end to them?

I'm tired of feeling like I'm not in control of my career, and I bet other women are too.

(upbeat music) Equal rights to set forth our own humanity.

(Alessia Cara) ♪ Find table spaces, say your social graces ♪ ♪ Bow your head, they're pious here ♪ ♪ But you and I, we're pioneers ♪ ♪ We make our own rules, our own room ♪ ♪ No bias here ♪ Stop saying that there's not enough qualified women.

You gotta get used to seeing me.

(Alessia Cara) ♪ So hey, we brought our drum ♪ ♪ And this is how we dance ♪ (Ashley) Do you feel like you're trying to have things be too perfect?

(baby spits, laughter) (Alessia Cara) ♪ Find me where the wild things are ♪ (chanting) (Alessia Cara) ♪ Don't mind us ♪ ♪ Find me where the wild things are ♪ I am a feminist.

Equal rights for women in the United States of America!

(applause) Powerful women across the globe.

(Alessia Cara) ♪ Find me where the wild things are ♪ ♪ (indistinct conversation) (Ashley) May I take a picture?

My mom tended to film everything.

(Ashley's mother) Brand new backpack.

(laughter) Hi, Ash.

(Ashley) So, I'm not surprised that I soon wanted that camera too.

Mommy, can I take a picture with you?

(Ashley's mother) Here, just look through it, hold it still.

Okay, look over here.

Over here!

Over here, over here!

Can you get us?

Can you see us in there?

-Yeah.

-Okay, give it to me.

(Ashley) I swear I get better.

(intense music) ♪ (screaming) At 27, I believed I was truly on my way to being the director I wanted to be.

But I was hit with a new reality I wasn't prepared for.

It seemed small at first.

I'd walk on set, and the crew would often second-guess my decisions.

So I'd stand my ground, but then it got worse.

(gentle music) Instead of getting hired as a director, I wasn't seen as someone who could do the job.

At first, I thought this was all my fault.

(engine humming) (Mindy) For me, it was moments realizing that... other people had a problem with me being in charge and being director.

I didn't think I couldn't until I got out in the real world and they were like, "But you're a woman."

And I'm like, "Yeah, isn't it cool?"

(Brea) This is a problem I had especially as an actress and when I started trying to make movies as well is that I get out there and schmooze and I end up somehow on a date.

And like, I don't know why, but I'm--and I didn't realize I was on a date... -Until halfway through the date.

-Yeah, halfway through, then I'm like, "Oh, you're not gonna give me money to make a project, we're on a date right now."

(Jess) It's hard because you don't want to be the butt of the joke, you don't want to be the sex vixen, you want to be the director.

You want to be able to enjoy your work, you want to be able to create the work and people respect you for it, but as a system, yes, because it's acceptable, and here we are, as women again, butt of the joke.

That's what it felt like.

(Ashley) Just work harder, right?

That's what we're told.

(cheery music) (Joan) Don't hit this guy either.

(Ashley) Don't hit the other pedestrians.

Oh, there's my crew!

-Hi!

-Oh, there they are!

(playful scream) (Ashley) Joan!

Don't!

(laughter) I had to speak with someone who understood the industry we work in and could give me some advice, so I sat down with director Joan Darling.

She was my directing teacher in college and a pioneer in television.

She was one of the first women ever to direct a television show, including one of TV Guide's Top 100 Episodes of All Time.

(laughter) (priest) ...a little seltzer down your pants.

(laughter) (Ashley) Joan invited her friend and colleague Norman Lear.

(indistinct greeting) (Joan) Goodness, how great to see you.

(Ashley) Norman is one of TV's most influential producers and is a constant champion for equal rights.

It was on his show, "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," that Joan had her first directing job.

Joanie told me you were the first one to ask her if she was interested in directing.

Were you looking for a woman director in particular?

Not for the sake of hiring a woman.

We spent a long time talking about it.

-Right.

-It occurred to me that you were saying things, understanding the subject in a way, understanding what was required of the actors, and it just followed that I might ask, "Have you ever thought about directing this?"

(Joan) And you said, "Well, I think you should do it," and I said, "Well, I don't know how to do it."

I said, "Unless... what it is is you got the table, you can have all three of them, you're on the two of them for the joke, and then you go back over to her."

And you looked at me and said, "You'll do it," and walked away.

(laughter) (Ashley) This one opportunity opened doors for Joan to take on more jobs as director.

(Joan) When I started, the only woman's name I ever saw was my own.

(Ashley) So was there a moment when you realized this was a big deal?

As a director?

No, I was an idiot.

Diversity was beginning-- which was in the '70s-- diversity was beginning to come into everybody's mind more in terms of women were sort of oddballs.

We weren't even up the scale enough to be prejudiced against.

Everything was natural to me except the fact that I was a woman.

I would go home and feel like I'd made a fool of myself by saying, "This is what I need," or "This is what it has to be," or whatever.

And then I had a cameraman once who, when I did my first one-camera show, I said, "I want to see them from the waist up coming down the stairs talking."

I get this horror movie shot.

I knew what I wanted to see, and I knew it was possible.

He didn't want to use a zoom, is what it came down to.

So I go to the phone, I call the producer, I say, "It's 11 o'clock, I know exactly what I want.

This cameraman is not giving me that shot."

He came down, I had the shot, we made the day.

That was when I became conscious.

That was when I said to myself, "There's no woman out there getting dressed every morning and going into work and being a director."

(Ashley) Well, I'll tell you, I had this mindset of, "I can just walk on set and do it, do the job."

(Joan) I'm in my 80s, and I'm still wrestling with it.

(Norman) And the fact is, the statistics, the figures show that too few women are directing as it relates to their percentage in the industry.

(Ashley) Let's bring up the stats.

Thanks to Joan and women like her, there are more women today with their eyes on directing, but the numbers of women actually getting those jobs is still incredibly small, especially those movies that you go to see in the theater.

Think about it: The stories you see today, they're often told by men.

I feel that the reason there are few women directors is because when one walks in the room, that's not necessarily what you see.

You see other things about her besides her talent, and that has nothing to do-- (Joan) Do you feel that happens to a man?

Let's say a guy goes in for a directing job and he's unkempt and he has egg on his shirt and, you know...

He's an artist.

(Joan) Okay, you're right.

(laughter) (Ashley) I don't want to make it--I mean, I don't want to make it a man versus woman thing.

I'm just trying to say that there's something underlying that makes it just a little bit more difficult when a woman chooses this career.

If that's true... -If that's true.

-...does it matter?

-It matters.

-I think there is a bias.

Unfortunately, it's something very right about that.

It's harder for an attractive woman to look like an artist in our culture.

This will be a big confession.

(he laughs) I walked in and met you, a very pretty woman.

My instinct within five minutes was, "Oh, pay attention here.

She knows what she's talking about, she's got something on her mind.

You know, pay attention."

But that's instinct overcoming... what I guess, without the instinct, would be prejudice.

I've never said any of that before, and I love listening to it.

(laughter) I realize there are some things, at least in my generation, that simply have to be overcome.

(Ashley) Overcome?

Yes, definitely, but this is not a generational issue.

It's been over 40 years since Joan first stepped on set, and the numbers are barely moving.

I needed to get outside of my own industry to figure out how we can get past these prejudices.

Okay, so let's go get 80 bags.

And that's how I found a woman on a similar mission: Lucy Sanders.

(Lucy) I think it's important to understand that there is bias in the culture.

It's not you, and it's not just in the corporate space or in the start-up space, it's in classrooms, it's in any organizational structure where one group is significantly underrepresented-- which means there's another group that's significantly overrepresented-- and there's a societal bias from both men and women about that, you know, sort of topic, if you will.

(Ashley) Lucy founded an organization to offer research and solutions to get more women and girls into computing.

She focuses on how biases, specifically our unconscious biases, impact our decisions in our culture today.

(Lucy) In computing, in technology, there's a strong societal bias about who does tech.

I guarantee you, if you walk down the street and ask people to draw a picture about who does tech, you get a hoodie, you get a white guy, they'd be young, maybe they dropped out of college, you know, and they're not going to necessarily think about a young woman such as yourself.

Being a chief technology officer, it's just not in our societal thinking.

(man) Yes, yes, I think that will be fine.

(woman) Excuse me, Doctor.

(woman) I'm the doctor!

He's the nurse.

-Wow.

-Wow.

You know, you think about the word, "unconscious bias."

We all understand "bias."

"Unconscious" means that it's a bias that we're bringing to the table but we don't realize it.

-Sure.

-It's unconscious, and it's a bias that men and women bring to the table.

(Ashley) Brad is a venture capitalist who invests in software and internet companies like Fitbit and Moz.

He joined Lucy Sanders as a cofounder of her organization when he learned about the issues and the challenges surrounding women in technology.

(Brad) I had no idea what the actual issues were, and in the first five minutes, she said to me that we've created a culture where women are, you know, not invited or feel not invited or aren't able to comfortably engage and choose not to do it.

(daughter) Mom, this stuff might not seem like a big deal, but it chips away at you.

If I got bent out of shape every time a man said something stupid, you wouldn't be here.

(laughter) Mom!

This is a real problem!

The sexism I'm talking about is all the little disrespectful things that men do that-- That they don't even realize.

(laughter) (Asha) I definitely don't want it to be about, like, attacking the perpetrator or the system.

It's about just being aware that it exists.

(woman) Your coffee, sir.

(Ashley) Today is less about outright, overt sexism towards women... (man) How can such a pretty wife make such bad coffee?

(woman) I heard that!

(Ashley) It's more subtle.

We're trained to laugh it off.

(girl) Need it back by five, gentlemen.

-Thanks, beautiful.

-Manners, boys.

(Ashley) It's not always easy to see, even when it's right in front of you.

And even our amount of makeup worn is up for debate.

If you wear too much, you're seen as untrustworthy, but if you don't wear enough, you aren't taken seriously.

That's not how it should be, but that's how it is.

(funky music) And women are expected to be able to handle all of this.

I'm exhausted just looking at it.

When I was wearing makeup, people would assume I was only there as the girlfriend.

Clearly that is my issue, right?

I don't want to be somebody's girlfriend.

I am here as the person in charge.

(Mindy) You do realize this is a privilege.

Pretty women, when you walk into a room and they're all like, "You're so pretty," you get a seat at a table because you're pretty.

You guys have a privilege that, like, I am not used to.

I'm not gonna get meetings because I'm the pretty, petite girl in the corner.

Never gonna happen for me.

-So, check your privilege.

-But you also might get taken more seriously.

(Mindy) Cool, that's my privilege.

(Andresse) Women are often seen as either competent or likable, but oftentimes not both, and that's a problem because we know in the workplace, it helps to be both competent and well liked.

And so, women have to spend this energy in walking this fine line, and that's energy that, oftentimes, men don't have to think about.

(Ashley) What I always deal with is, I'm doing the same thing the male would do, but I'm perceived, you know, the B word.

It's constantly thrown in my face.

Like, if you weren't a chick, they would be fine.

(Jane) I think it's easier the higher up you go.

You're probably feeling it more because you're younger and at the beginning of your career.

I mean, in a lot of ways, when you say that word, I think I love that when I see women and younger women, and somebody tells me they're aggressive.

I'm like, "Right on!

Can I meet her?

What's her phone number?"

(Liz) It's interesting, I think, that when men talk about other women to me, sometimes it seems like they're trying to dance around a personality issue and they kind of like cover it up with about performance and results, and I'm like, I feel like really this is about personality.

(Michelle) Well, is it because they're speaking to you and you're a woman, whereas if they were speaking to a male CEO, they would frame it differently?

(Jane) There's just such a focus on your personality as a woman, but why aren't we looking at the man and holding him to the same high standard we're holding women to?

(Lucy) We see a lot of women who think, "Oh, somehow it's me."

You know, they have sort of allowed this socialization to beat them down.

(Ashley) Okay, double standards, bias, unfair perceptions.

These are all norms women are forced to navigate in the workplace, and it can take its toll.

There's a body of research called stereotype threat.

It's the fear that a member of an underrepresented group in any culture or classroom, it's that fear that they will reinforce a negative stereotype about their group.

You know how when you take the math SAT, when you take your college-- and you're asked the gender question, they took that question off the first part of the test and moved it to the end of the test, and when they did that, women scored higher and men scored lower, and the hypothesis I've heard is that it's because women were not reminded of that stereotype that women aren't good in math and men were not reminded of the positive stereotype -that men are...good at math.

-That men are good at math, yes.

(Lucy) And this is all unconscious.

It's not like you wake up in the morning and decide you're gonna go trip out on stereotype threat.

It would be, "Oh, wait, I'm the only woman in my department, or I'm the only woman on my team.

That means my idea has to be 150 percent perfect.

That means that I'm not going for any promotion that I'm not 150 percent qualified for.

That means I'm not gonna be the first to speak out in a meeting," et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, because it has to be so perfect.

(Ashley) The key is, we all need to realize these stereotypes are playing games with our heads, making us do and think things we're not aware of.

Sound familiar?

(bright music) This made me think, though.

Stereotypes.

They start long before we even think about our careers.

It starts earlier than people think.

(reporter) Girls as young as six years old are less likely than boys to see members of their own gender as really, really smart.

(reporter) The princess obsession is contributing to self-objectification.

(Ireland) Being a girl, there's pressure to always have a perfection that no one has.

(Ashley) I remember having to battle that pressure too.

So, is it possible to intervene earlier to prevent these stereotypes in the first place?

(girl) This is a calculator, and this is how it works.

You just gotta crank these gears, and these make the gears move.

(girl) And these gears have a hard time spinning when you do it that way, so you have to do it either like this one or that one.

(girl) Look, let's make this gear move.

(Ashley) They seemed fine to me, but I couldn't help but wonder if that would change.

(Lia) I'm Lia Schwinghammer.

My current title is Executive Director for Queen City Robotics Alliance, which is a nonprofit based in Charlotte, North Carolina, that promotes STEM education for students kindergarten through 12th grade.

(girl) We're making a robot that we're gonna enter into the competition.

(girl) In this one, you're supposed to push this, spin the wheel.

Ready?

Try it again.

Try it again.

(robot whirring) It pushed it!

(Lia) There's all kinds of research that shows that girls are outperforming boys in elementary school, whether it's math or science or anything, and starting in middle school and into high school, that reverses.

Before we had a girls team in middle school, we had an incident where it was early in the season, we had just recruited a bunch of girls, we had a demonstration coming up so I sent the kids off, I said, "Go get the robot out, make sure everything's working.

Go to it."

Everybody-- I should say, every boy got up and walked off to go get the robot and stuff out, and all the girls just sat there, and then I realized, "Ladies!

Why are you sitting there?

Get up and go!"

And I actually saw a couple of girls start and say, "Oh, oh, yeah, okay, that means me too."

It really got me thinking, what's happening?

What's going on?

(Catherine) Middle school is a very important time in development as adolescents, and that's when our brains are undergoing enormous growth and change, and so it's very important that we reach out to young women at that stage.

It's also a stage where they're thinking a lot about what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a man.

Can you be an engineer?

Can you be a computer scientist?

(girl) Really?

Well, when I think of something that I wanna grow up and I confirm it, that's what I'm gonna do.

I try to do everything I can to make sure I complete that goal.

(Lia) I wanted to start a girls team, and it would be middle school girls, so when they went to the high school team, they would have more confidence, they would've had that experience and know-how.

(indistinct announcements) (upbeat music) (Sophia) So I had to bring my robot into dance class, and it was, like, sitting in the hallway where I was putting on my ballet shoes, and my classmates are coming in and they're like, "Whoa, what is that?!"

And I'm like, "It's a robot."

And they're like, "Cool!

How does it work?

What does it do?"

And I'm like, "Oh, it picks up blocks and puts them in baskets."

And they're like, "Oh, that's awesome!"

So people tend to have that reaction.

(Maddy) The reason that we both like doing robotics is because it's fun and you get to work with friends.

Building the robot and making it your own and programming it and, like, you can decorate it any way you want.

(Sophia) We put sparkles on ours.

(laughing) (Lia) So, what I learned from my research and talking to people is that there's two big factors in the middle school years that are really having influence and impact on, do they continue with science and technology?

And that's during their middle school years, are they staying active in a science club or engineering group, or are they doing something with STEM?

The second biggest factor is, are their fathers being involved with them?

And this is key because we don't necessarily think about dads working with their girls on the computer or showing them how to program or showing them how to fix things on their car.

(Jerry) The dad plays a huge role in the girls' well-being when they reach their teenage years.

A lot of times, the boys' self-esteems kind of just automatically go up when they get to teenage years, and the girls, that's not an automatic.

(D.I.)

I think it's the parents competing with peers, and the peers are buttressed by the media environment.

And we start it from the day they're born.

A pink crib and a blue crib.

It's just such utter nonsense, and it's so pervasive.

(girl screaming) (female announcer) Disney Princess Carriage.

(male announcer) With the Color Shifters Custom Color Shop, blast through a raging waterfall.

(D.I.)

The environment is destructive.

I mean, I spent the drive here this morning talking to my 16-year-old daughter, you know, arguing about the debate, "Why is it guys can wear loose khakis and girls are all wearing tight jeans?"

There's stuff going on that inculcates it into their minds and their way of thinking that happens way, way early.

We're talking even before school starts, whether it's commercials or what have you.

(sawing) (unintelligible) (Maddy) It's almost--it's almost there.

There's just like a little, little bit left.

Oh, there we go.

(cheering) -Much easier.

-I think kids get their priorities set by two different groups, right?

Their parents and their peers.

There's things that can work their way into a priority, so having an all-girls team, for example, sort of gets rid of some of those things that are priorities at that age, right, and it kinda helps them focus on, well, let's find out if this is something that's curious, if this captures your imagination.

You want them to have time to ponder those things, to think about them, and make sure that they're not distracted so much by things that might not, at the end of the day, be as important.

-So, Iman, what you workin' on?

-I have to take apart this gearbox and take one of the parts out and put it together and make another gearbox.

-Yeah, totally got all that.

-Well, I mean, it's not that complicated.

There is a ring gear and a bunch of planetary gears -and, uh, 9/64 Allen stuff.

-Yeah!

(D.I.)

So, I mean, one of the things that I guess I'm happiest about, at one point we were having a holiday and it was like, what do I get for my kids?

And I said, "Well, I can get you a normal present like we do, or I will give you a little bit more to buy tools at Home Depot."

And Iman, my daughter, picked the tools.

So I ended up buying her $60, $70 of tools but we went there several trips and I talked about which tools are the most useful, like everybody needs a hammer, everybody needs some locking pliers, and so there's a sense of ownership.

And from that point on, if there was something that required some hand tools around the house-- switch a doorknob or take something apart or what have you-- say, "Honey, get your tools, let's do this."

And just the activity of doing that is really kind of an empowering thing.

-Hey.

-Um... (Ashley) After Maddy, Sophia, and Iman were on their all-girls middle school team for two years, they graduated to the coed high school team.

I had to ask, did Lia's experiment work?

When the girls entered into the coed high school team, you noticed that they were-- they weren't kind of like a step behind.

They were just jumping right in.

(D.I.)

They were actually a little bit ahead.

-Right, right.

-Their first season, they went out there five times, and three of them, the robot did nothing, and we're all standing there, and it was a loose wire or something got bumped or something got messed up.

And that could've been a game-ender for a lot of people.

Like, "Oh, it didn't work, I'm never coming back."

And now they go in and they know, "Well, we better check the wires and we better shake that thing around and we better prepare that things can go wrong and how to deal with them quickly."

(Jake) It's just a problem to solve, they go solve it.

-Yeah.

-I think what we gotta do is we gotta put the trash can on top of a box before we do any box stacking.

Yeah, and then we just lift the box, and remember... (overlapping conversation) (Jerry) I think it's really good to get the girls involved early 'cause not only is it good for the girls themselves, but it's good for the boys... (overlapping conversation) (Iman) But remember how we want to stay low.

(Jerry) ...'cause they get to see, "Huh, there are females in this role.

I gotta learn how to deal with them.

This isn't like a little boys' club."

So they're learning too.

(overlapping conversation) (Lia) They're willing to interact as equals with the boys on the team when they get into groups, they're more willing to speak up, and what's happening is that the other new girls are being subtly influenced, and I see that energy and confidence spreading.

-No.

-Oh, there we go, see?

(Catherine) I think a culture of opportunity and that girls can do anything is incredibly important and you can instill that in so many ways.

Sports is one avenue, and we know that makes a difference in girls' lives.

(Lia) It's not about the robots.

It's teamwork.

It's working through a design challenge.

It's really about all the other things around it that kids learn.

(overlapping conversation) (Ashley) I was happy to see what these girls had going for them.

(Maddy) Remember to push down really hard.

(drill whirring) (Ashley) But I was still concerned.

Will it be enough?

(gentle music) -Okay... -But we can do the ones here.

(James) I think students like Maddy have all the tools for success, and that's because not only we here at the school have laid a foundation, but her parents and mentors are leading the way on that.

(Maddy) I'm thinking about going into, like, electrical or design.

Who knows, maybe I'll make, like, a robotic eye.

(James) 119 through 152.

Maddy, yes, ma'am.

But she's definitely gonna run into some obstacles.

It's sad to say that the white-haired men that are still out there in the engineering firms are gonna give her a hard time because they're scared of her.

In the engineering field specifically, it is male-dominated, and so people will be hesitant to hire her initially because it's just not the tradition that they're used to.

Female students like Maddy are gonna have to work a little harder.

(Joan) If you came in and you talked to me the way you're talking, I would think you were terrific.

I would want to hire you.

You know, unless you, you know, pissed me off or something.

But, you know... (Ashley) I think the struggle, though, the reason we're having these issues -is those are decision-makers.

-There's no question about it.

(Ashley) Those are decision-makers who are looking at her, looking at me, looking at, you know, people in this room and saying, "I'm not used to a woman asking like that, and so that means I don't like her and I'm not gonna hire her."

And that becomes the reason we're only at four percent or five percent.

(Andresse) We also need to pay attention to what employers can do, what governments can do.

This is not just about individuals.

So, yes, absolutely, women, you need to be prepared.

So women are getting the education, they are networking, they are taking training in negotiation.

All of those things are necessary, but we're not going to negotiate our way out of the situation.

We're not gonna negotiate our way to gender equity in the workplace.

Employers and institutions and organizations need to be accountable for how they hire, promote, and identify future talent and future leaders.

(Ashley) Well, my industry is having a hard time figuring this out.

(grim music) (reporter) Federal investigators will finally start looking into a glaring issue that has plagued Hollywood for decades: the lack of female directors.

(reporter) The federal agency responsible for investigating employment discrimination is finally looking into the hiring practices for directors in Hollywood.

(reporter) This has been an issue for decades, but a new report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film shows the numbers are getting even smaller.

(reporter) The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will start interviewing female directors next week to determine if it should take legal action against the industry.

(phone dialing) (phone dialing) (Ashley's mother) How'd it go today?

(Ashley) It was good, um...

I gave a good overview of my experience.

I mean, I've directed a ton of projects, but she asked me, have I been actually hired to direct?

And I said, "Only-- I could count on one hand how many times I've actually been hired to direct something, and it often involves, also, many other roles, not just directing."

-Right.

-And then she wanted to know what my male colleagues had been going through.

I said, "You know, all I really see is that they just keep doing commercial after commercial.

Every week, they've directed another commercial."

You know, I try to get in front of managers and agents, but they want you to have this much experience, but I don't have that experience because nobody's selecting me, and, um, she's like, "Yeah, yeah, that seems to be what we hear a lot."

She said that the biggest learning curve is, like, Hollywood isn't this structured environment.

It's not, "If this, then that; if this, then that."

It's like this mystical place where, who are the deciders, who makes the decisions, how does the industry run?

And it's like, truthfully, it's got so many different elements to it and there are biases that exist in every single step, you know?

-Yeah.

-Of course you know.

(sighs) (Ashley's mother) Well, I'm glad you went.

I'm glad you shared your story because I think they need to have the perspectives of a young filmmaker to realize that she has to go around the system and not use the system because it's not working for her.

Yeah.

(dark rock music) ♪ (keys jingling) (female vocalist) ♪ Kill me gently ♪ (car starting) ♪ Kill me slow ♪ ♪ Whisper whispers so I don't know ♪ ♪ (Ashley) So, what are you supposed to do?

It's such a complex question because--because there are a couple different fronts to this battle.

First of all, we often see them saying, "Oh, well, maybe the women just need to be more confident," or "Maybe the women need to be this or that."

And we sort of look at that as saying, "Well, maybe what you're saying is women are somehow broken."

-Yeah.

-Which we don't subscribe to, at all.

So now let's say you're CEO of a company.

-Done.

-Done, okay.

-Yeah.

-CEO owns the organization, or any leader, and you care about this.

You want your culture to be inclusive.

You want everybody to come to work and really be, you know, collaborative there, right?

You also know, as a CEO, that you've got these business processes, right?

You know how people are recruited, you know how they are promoted, you know how tasks get assigned.

These processes are either explicitly stated or they're implicit which means they just kinda happen as the way things are around here.

So, advice number one to CEOs is, make those processes explicit, right?

Make them explicit and then inspect them to see where unconscious bias could play a role.

So, they have to take a systems approach.

That's the only way it's really gonna work.

(Ashley) I can't help but feel that, since we don't have enough women in leadership positions, then certain issues won't be top of mind.

When corporate women start their careers today, they make up almost half of the workforce.

Once women reach higher level positions, though, their levels drop significantly.

So it's clear to me that the men who are there need to make gender equity a priority.

There's a long list of things that, um, I now am aware of, and there's a smaller set of things, when I see something, I try to do something about it.

The unconscious bias, for example, of women in organizational constructs feeling like they can't collaborate with other women because they need to get ahead, and it's a zero-sum game.

Think about a meeting where you've got a group of men sitting around a table.

Now, put one woman at the table, and that woman at the table often is run over by the men at the table.

And the harder she fights to get a voice, the more oppressed she feels.

Put two women at the table, and oftentimes you see this dynamic where the women are measuring against each other.

It's not until you get three women at the table where, all of a sudden, that dynamic changes again.

Another example is men talking over women.

For starters, I try not to do it myself, so I try to lead by example by being very conscious of it, and when I do it-- which happens-- I back off very quickly.

That can be done with other men who are talking over women as well.

So, I'll notice a woman wants to say something, and I'll notice the same guy continually talking over her, and at some point, what I'll do is, literally say--like this, while looking at the woman-- I'll say, "Hang on a second, let me hear what she has to say."

(Sarah) Brad supports me in many different ways, both by saying he thinks I'm doing a great job, but he also supports me in other contexts that I think are, um, more subtle.

(Ashley) Sarah is the CEO of Moz, which is one of Brad's invested companies.

(Sarah) I was in a meeting with him and a bunch of other C-level executives and CEOs of his companies.

Spoke up, said something about it, and then the conversation moved on to someone else, and Brad actually interrupted a few minutes later to pause the group and he said, "I just want to stop for a minute and recognize what Sarah said a minute ago, because she said X, Y, and Z," and really showed he was listening, and then he sort of validated it by saying how important it was.

And by doing that very subtle thing, right, he was sort of bestowing some of the expertise and the gravitas that people sort of attribute to him and he gave a little to me.

So I think it was one of his very subtle ways of saying, "She's important, and what she says matters, and we shouldn't overlook it."

(gentle music) (Lucy) I mean, you can't look at an underrepresented group and say, "If you just fix yourself..." I mean, we have to change the system, we have to change the organizations.

Both of you are minorities.

(girl) What's a minority?

It's a group of people who have to work twice as hard in life to get half as far.

And Denise, you a Black woman, so you gonna have to work three times as hard.

-I know that's right.

-Mm-hmm.

Not all women are seeing the same kind of progress at the same rate.

Asian American women and white women oftentimes do better than African American and Hispanic women do.

That disadvantage is really problematic.

(soft music) Issues of race, we have to be thinking about those, along with gender, in a more integrated way.

(Jenn) People are basically taking a cupcake and sprinkling sprinkles on top of it, saying, "It's now diverse," but you can't do that.

It needs to be with the flour and in the core mix.

If diversity and inclusion are not priorities in the core culture of your company, you are doing it wrong.

(Kat) Advocating for young leaders, women leaders, diverse leaders, is critical to getting diverse leadership at the top.

Diverse leadership leads to more profitable companies and a better return on investment and a larger increase in shareholder value and, at every level, produces better financial results.

(Jenn) We try to pick women of color in addition to people who are white, in addition to men of color as well, and I think it's also constantly going to companies and being like, "Look, you need to make a conscious effort and actively look for qualified diverse candidates."

They're out there, they're a lot harder to find, but you will do better as a company if you diversify your company.

(Asha) And there's no, like, one solution for everything.

You know, there's so much intersectionality between race and sexuality and gender that, if we approach everything like, "Okay, we just want 50/50," it's not gonna work in so many of these areas, so we have to have awareness and we have to bring minorities in at the table and figure out like, "What's affecting you, how do we make this work, how do we change this?"

So I don't think it's like a one-size-fits-all.

(Andresse) We need to make sure we're understanding that, even within the group of women in the workplace, they experience different realities based on certain situations.

(phone dialing) -Hello?

-Hey again.

(Lily) Hello.

Aw!

Lily, my best friend from college, is now about to have her own little person, and I'm over here still trying to keep one plant alive.

It's crazy, it's awesome.

So, right now, you feel like... having this baby is going to affect your work.

(Asha) Did you ever feel, before having kids, were you ever fear-- 'cause I'm fearful.

My husband and I want to have kids, but I'm scared that if I go down that road, I'm gonna give up everything and I have to start all over again and I'm gonna be disadvantaged 'cause of my skin color, gender, blah-blah-blah.

-Now you're a mom.

-Did you ever have that?

(Bridget) No, I think, because you said, "Oh, I felt at a disadvantage because of my skin color, because of my accent, because I'm a woman."

Well, add "mom" to the list.

It doesn't make a difference.

I've worked so hard to get where I am, and I don't want to get sent back to square one -because I'm pregnant.

-What do you mean -you're taking over my job?

-Well, while you were on your baby vacation, I was doing your job.

(Rachel) A vacation?

My idea of a vacation does not involve something sucking on my nipples until they are raw.

(Ashley) I have to stand closer to you.

(laughing) (Lily) It's not uncommon for you to hear that after a woman has gotten pregnant, she goes on maternity leave and she doesn't return, and actually the only two women at this start-up that have ever been pregnant and gone on maternity leave, so far it was 100 percent non-return rate.

Recently, I discovered that they are trying to keep from having to pay me paid holidays on maternity leave.

That's great.

That's four holidays that I would've gotten on maternity leave.

So that's almost a week worth of pay that I thought I'd be getting that I'm not gonna be getting now.

(Ashley) How's that gonna affect you money-wise?

I mean... (Lily) It's a week that I will probably have to go back earlier to work because I can't afford to stay out.

(somber music) I mean, it's kind of a crappy situation.

♪ They've stuck to what, legally, they have to do, and that is continuing my medical benefits, that's under FMLA, they have to do that.

They have to allow me 12 weeks off.

There is nothing that they're doing over and beyond what the law requires them to do, and that law is very limited.

(Ashley) I mean, that's probably why those other girls never came back.

They probably had this frustrating experience and said, "You know what, I don't wanna work for that company anymore."

(Lily) I mean, if, while on maternity leave, you get no support from your company, you probably don't feel as much urgency or loyalty -to come back to them.

-Yeah.

(Lily) I'm already in this situation.

I can't go and find a new job that'll give me better benefits.

Now I'm about to pop, and there's no other option, so.

(Barack Obama) Family leave, childcare, workplace flexibility, a decent wage-- these are not frills, they are basic needs.

They shouldn't be bonuses.

They should be part of our bottom line as a society.

That's what we're striving for.

(applause) (Andresse) This is just an issue for all of us to be concerned about, for families, for men and women.

Men also have children-- surprise, surprise.

And so it needs-- and we need to stop treating it as some sort of special thing we do for women or that women need because it will never become a priority once it's framed in that way.

(boy) I'm really--I'm hungry.

(Sarah) Okay, what would you like?

-I'm not hungry.

-You're not hungry, okay.

So I was one of the first women at Moz to get pregnant and have a baby and then be a new mom in the office.

I was probably seven or eight months pregnant, and I had a meeting, and then after the meeting, someone came into my office and was like, "Wow, Sarah, are you--are you okay?

What happened at that meeting?

You were really upset."

I was like, "What are you talking about, I wasn't upset."

They were like, "You looked really upset."

And then I thought about it and I realized that Jack had been kicking like crazy, like pummeling like he sometimes does.

In future meetings, I would announce at the beginning of it, like, if I make a funny face, please, it is not you, I just can't control-- I don't know when I'm about to get kicked and wince, right?

So I just-- I just rolled with it.

Here he comes now.

(laughing) In the new space that we have, because I'd had my experience as a new mom, I prioritized getting a wellness room in there.

It's something you kind of have to experience before you can really appreciate why you need so much infrastructure to do this.

Why you need a sink, why you need a refrigerator, why the chair has to be very comfortable, why it has to be quiet, the level of privacy you need.

We don't just talk about women are welcome at work and families are welcome at work, but we actually do something about it.

(Jack) I'm getting dressed!

(Sarah) Yeah, you are.

You're really handsome.

(Ashley) This seems to be a huge aspect to all of this.

Having more leaders who see firsthand what their female employees need will help women stay more connected to their work and personal lives.

And most importantly, they won't feel like they have to make a choice.

Whoa, careful, huh.

(Jenn Mann) I think most organizations are understanding that this is an important factor to address in order to be successful.

The ones that haven't figured that out are probably not going to be able to compete.

(Ashley) SAS is a global tech company voted by Fortune magazine as one of the top places to work because of their supportive work environment.

(Jenn Mann) We've had daycare for over 20-some years.

The first female software developer that was struggling with balancing having a new child and whether she wanted to stay at home with that new child or to further her career, we took that concern off the table by providing daycare for her.

(children shouting) We feel that if we keep our employees happy and meet their needs, they're going to keep our customers happy.

It's a culture of trust, a culture of trust and flexibility, and that benefits all, whether you're a man or a woman.

(Asha) That cultural shift has to happen as well.

It's not on us to change everything.

Like, you can only get so far with, like, willpower.

You need someone to open the door.

(Ashley) What do you think makes you different?

What makes you different than the women who didn't or couldn't get this far?

I'm not sure it's about me and about me being different, but rather other people believing in me and giving me the opportunity.

And I've been blessed.

I mean, I really have.

I've been blessed with bosses who have believed in me, afforded me the opportunity, who intentionally would put me in jobs that I didn't feel as though I had the background, and they did it on purpose because they knew that it would stretch me as an individual and would help me to grow.

I don't think everyone has those kinds of bosses or even mentors who challenge you to get out of your comfort zones.

(Bridget) You need someone who's also going to the people who are hiring and saying, "Hire this person," going to bat for you.

What we really need are sponsors.

Sponsorship is simply the act of someone being willing to put their name on you, to advocate for you for a role.

You want people to spend significant political capital on your career, and I'm not saying just trust in the system because like I told you, the cultures are biased, you know, and so having that special sponsor who's gonna overcome some of those things for you and move you along is extremely important when we're talking about cultures with unconscious bias.

Someone that saw something in me was a sponsor when I actually was trying to make a transition, saying, okay, I'm hitting all gears, right, in regards to my career, being successful.

I'm gonna be the only one that's a mom at this level working part-time, and somebody had to put their political capital and say, "Emily can still be successful working part-time even though we haven't seen anyone do it yet."

That, to me, is also a mentor that turned into a sponsor, and I think that's the same as investing in someone.

(Ashley) So, what happens when we actually ask for that help?

I'm gonna have a career of pitching myself constantly, and so I'm ready to start approaching financiers.

Every time you make a movie, it's a whole other fundraising aspect, getting people to believe in you.

Is there something that you encourage, any advice in that sense?

(Brad) I'm happy to advocate for funding the film if you have a Kickstarter campaign.

-Yeah.

-Making noise about it, telling people why I think they should participate.

Um... if we go with the real... funded, funded budget... Don't apologize!

What do you want?

-What do you need?

-I know, I know!

I regret already doing that.

-Tell him what you need.

-What do you need?

I need to be more confident about saying the dollar.

(Brad) Well, be more confident about saying the dollar, but let's break it down.

You already have a network of prospective funders and an extended network of those prospective funders that they bring to the table.

I'll--I'll provide some funding.

Thanks for asking, that's the first time you've asked.

You actually haven't asked me yet.

-I haven't!

-Ashley, ask him right now.

-Will you help us-- -Absolutely!

(Ashley) Thank you.

(laughing) Were you rolling?

You're rolling?

You know, the punchline is, though, you asked.

Don't be afraid to ask.

-Yeah.

-And I like to say, you don't have to lead with the punchline, but don't--don't sit back and wait for it to come to you.

Right, don't wait for the person to have to figure it out.

Okay, done.

Got it.

(rock music) ♪ Maddy, Sophia, and Iman are now at their first statewide robotics competition.

♪ (cheering) (robot whirring) (cheering) ♪ What's happening right now in the competition?

-The quarterfinals.

-The quarterfinals.

(Iman) We are in the middle of the quarterfinals at the North Carolina FRC Regional.

(Maddy) Competition.

(laughter) -Okay.

-Okay, all right, let's go.

All right, bye.

When you move a joystick, it sends a signal from the computer to this brain, and then this brain sends signals through these little wires to the different motor controllers.

(Ashley) So that this guy can then pick up things... -Yes.

-...and make points for you... -Exactly.

-...to get you into first place!

(Maddy) Yes!

Yes.

(Iman) Make it or break it.

Our last match is almost up, so... (mellow music) ♪ (indistinct announcement) ♪ (indistinct announcement) (screaming) (uplifting music) (Maddy) But it's helped me-- (crowd cheering) -What happened?

-It's happening!

(Maddy) I don't know!

(screaming, cheering) (Lia) They went to their tournament and actually won the whole thing.

They won the highest award there, they were so ecstatic, they were crying, they were jumping up and down.

They couldn't believe that they actually won.

I was like, "Oh my gosh, my babies!"

You know, so I was really, really proud of them.

And I'm gonna get emotional, I can't believe this.

It was so exciting.

(applause) (laughing) (Andresse) No one single thing will dissuade a woman or a younger woman from pursuing a career, but you have to think, over time, all these seemingly small disadvantages accumulate, and at some point, it's not unreasonable that some women will say, "You know what, this is tougher than I expected.

I'm gonna choose a different path."

And so that's how we see, over time, that women are falling off compared to their male peers.

Let's not fool ourselves.

There's absolutely tons of work to do still in terms of gaining equity in the workplace.

(Ashley) I set out to make this film because I didn't want to believe that this was it for me and for women like me.

(Kat) You expect in your mind to be able to do a job and just be you, and then other people don't view it that way.

When I look in the mirror, I see an Army officer who happens to be woman, not a woman Army officer.

(Ashley) Now, I've learned that we all have a role to play in the solution.

(Lucy) There is bias in the culture.

It's not you.

(Ashley) And it's time to take action.

(Jerry) To change the scorecard for the women, you have to actually change the men.

It can't be done without changing the men as well.

(Terry Crews) Men need to hold other men accountable.

(Ashley) And if you were feeling discouraged, like I did, I hope you've seen now that you are not alone.

There are a lot of people who want to do something.

(Norah O'Donnell) Women cannot achieve equality in the workplace or in society until there is a reckoning.

Climate question is, how do democracies... (Ashley) We must look at work-life issues as human issues... (anchor) I think one of your children's just walked in.

(Ashley) ...not just a women's issue.

Um, I would be surprised... (dramatic music) (Ashley) By spending our dollars on female-driven movies and TV shows, we are being consciously inclusive and telling the Hollywood decision-makers that these stories matter.

Better yet, invest in women.

Their projects matter.

(Brad) The aspirational goal would be that it's a non-issue in a generation, that women are peers to men in all ways.

Your generation, I believe, is the one that's really making the transformational change.

(Ashley) When we change our own actions and thoughts, we've already begun to change the world.

(crowd chanting "Equal pay") We can be the pioneers of change.

-Pioneers... -...in... (Iman) ...skirts!

(laughter) (upbeat rock music) ♪ (girl) I'm gonna listen to a cymbal crash.

♪ (Ashley and girl) ♪ I'm on a freeway ♪ ♪ Nothing can slow me down ♪ ♪ Not even you and all the world ♪ ♪ Freeway ♪ ♪ Cruising on my own through life now ♪ ♪ I'm my own girl ♪ ♪ -Thanks.

-You just sang, how do you feel?

You sang into a real microphone in a real recording studio.

-How do you feel?

-Like I was gonna throw up.

I was so scared.

(laughter) Yeah, no one's gonna be listening to anything you say during this interview.

-Sorry to break it to you.

-I'm laughing more because you heard it but I felt it.

(laughter) (female vocalists) ♪ Tired of traveling on the same road ♪ ♪ I'm on a freeway ♪ ♪ Nothing can slow me down ♪ ♪ Not even you and all the world ♪ ♪ I'm on a freeway ♪ ♪ Cruising on my own through life now ♪ ♪ I'm my own girl ♪ ♪ ♪ I'm on a freeway ♪ ♪ Nothing can slow me down ♪ ♪ Not even you and all the world ♪ -Say, "Thanks for watching."

-Thanks for watching!

-My name is Laura, by the way.

-(overlapping chatter) -Bye!

-Bye!

Thanks for watching!

♪ (mellow musical bridge) (female vocalist) ♪ Sometimes I might fail ♪ ♪ ♪ But I'll push myself up tall ♪ ♪ ♪ No more easy trail ♪ ♪ ♪ 'Cause now I've heard the call ♪ ♪ The call, the call ♪ ♪ I'm on a freeway ♪ ♪ Nothing can slow me down ♪ ♪ Not even you and all the world ♪ ♪ I'm on a freeway ♪ ♪ Cruising on my own through life now ♪ ♪ I'm my own girl ♪ ♪ I'm on a freeway ♪ ♪ Nothing can slow me down ♪ ♪ Not even you and all the world ♪ ♪ I'm on a freeway ♪ ♪ Cruising on my own through life now ♪ ♪ I'm my own girl ♪