In 2014 Women kept disappearing.

If you're not already familiar with the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film from San Diego State University you should be. They do annual reports of the representation of women in front of and behind the camera.

In 2014 among the top 100 grossing movies 
Women represent 12% of the protagonists. The number of women who were represented as major characters and speaking characters were the same as last year,  both figures were about 30%. A staggering 74% of all women characters were white. 

If you further read the study there are interesting statistics regarding the decrease of female characters from their 30's to 40's compared to the increase of male characters in the same age range. There are also statistics regarding the role of women in leadership positions, whether their marital status is known, and whether they were identified via a work related role (ie, doctor, lawyer) vs a personal role (ie, mother, sister.) It's a pretty clear analysis of the ways in which women are marginalized on film.

Their study for the role of women behind the camera looked at the top 250 domestic grossing films in 2014. 
Specifically they looked at the roles of directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers.

"38% of films employed 0 or 1 woman in the roles considered. 23% of films employed 2 women, 29% employed 3 to 5 women, 7% employed 6 to 9 women, and 3% employed 10 to 14 women. In contrast, no films employed 0 or 1 man in the roles considered, and 69% employed 10 to 27 men."

A whopping 93% of films had no female director, and 79% of the films had no female writer.

The figures for women working as cinematographers or composers? Even more depressing.

Women looking to work in these industries should see these figures as empowering. Awareness can change views. These are opportunities for women to break into these new markets. It might be a challenge to find someone out of the ordinary for roles in front of and behind the camera, but we need unique voices to keep movies alive.

Some fantastic films came out this year that told the stories of women, and by women including The Hunger Games, Wild, Maleficent, Selma, Cake, Gone Girl, Camp X Ray, Obvious Child, and more. If you want more films like those, get out there and make those movies.

• It's a Man's (Celluloid) World: On-Screen Representation of Female Characters in 2014
• Celluloid Ceiling: Behind the Scenes Employment in 2014
• The Hollywood Reporter - Major Film Roles for Women drop in 2014