Inequality is the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, and religion.
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Gender inequality
Gender inequality is the unequal treatment or the unjust denial of opportunities solely based on gender. Gender inequality is prevalent in Hollywood today.
Wage gap
The unequal wage gap in Hollywood has been debated in the media and even by American actresses. When actress Patricia Arquette's made her Oscar acceptance speech for best supporting actress, she brought to the light the inequality women are facing within the industry and throughout America; “To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s time to have wage equality once and for all. And equal rights for women in the United States of America". Society can see leading men making roughly twice as much as the leading women in Hollywood. In a poll done by The New York Film Academy (online) in 2014, the research shows the top ten male actors made a collective amount of $419 million compared to the top ten actresses who made roughly $226 million collectively.
Unequal opportunities
Along with the wage gap, opportunities within the film industry are biased towards gender. In the New York Film Academy research study it is revealed that a 10.6% increase in female characters on screen is observed when a women is directing, 8.7% increase when a female screenwriter is attached. "While the employers reflect gender inequality, insofar as women remain responsible for ensuring that the work is done, these women benefit from class inequality by hiring other women to handle the work assigned to them" In most cases, women do not have the same opportunities as men behind the scenes as well. "Visual effects, usually the largest department for big feature films, had an average of only 17.5% of women, while music had just 16%, and camera and electrical were, on average, 95% male".
The inequality seen in the film can be seen by the representation of characters the women must portray. In the same research poll done by The New York Film Academy, in 2014, it discusses the inequality of clothing and how a character is revealed between men and women. "Only 30.8% of speaking characters are women" and from those about 31%, "28.8% of those women wore sexually revealing clothes" compared to 7.0% of men.
Race inequality
Racial inequality is the unequal treatment or the unjust denial of opportunities solely based on race. “Typically, breakdowns reserve leading roles for white actors, leaving only a small number of remaining roles for actors of color.” In 2006, a study done by UCLA Chicano Studies breaks down Hollywood statistics; "From June 1st to August 31st of that year revealed that only 0.5% to 8.1% of roles were available for actors of color, compared to 69% of roles “reserved” for white actors. Moreover, only 8.5% of roles did not designate race or ethnicity, pitting white actors against actors of color". This shows the unequal employment opportunities that are based on someone’s race. “Just over a quarter (25.9%) of the 3,932 speaking characters evaluated were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups; [a full 74.1% were White]”
Ageism
Ageism can be seen as another type of discrimination throughout Hollywood; which effects more women than men. Ageism can be defined as; "[A] systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender. Old people are categorized as senile, rigid in thought and manner, old-fashioned in morality and skills .... Ageism allows the younger generation to see older people as different from themselves; thus they subtly cease to identify with their elders as human beings" Ageism is not a new phenomenon to Hollywood. Women are always cast younger and younger beside an actor well above her senior. For example, “in the 1942 classic Casablanca, Ingrid Bergman, 27, played opposite Humphrey Bogart, 16 years older than her”