10 Films About Sexism That Highlight the Intersections of Women's Fight for Equality

Chances are, if you’re a moviegoer, you’ve heard a little something about women’s fight for equality in Hollywood. According to Women and Hollywood, a nonprofit organization that educates and advocates for the cause, women remain poorly represented behind the camera, making up just 10% of directors and 19% of writers. It’s no wonder that women, so often boxed out of sharing their stories on screen, would distill that pain into their filmmaking, creating powerful stories of how sexism and misogyny continue to oppress women from all walks of life.

In these ten movies about sexism, women struggle for equality everywhere from iron mines to NASA to the Supreme Court. They also rail against the intersections of bigotry, seeing their fight for gender equality inflected by racism, homophobia, and other shameful prejudices. For women, these films will ring as validations of a shared struggle. For everyone else, they’ll be an education, an exercise in empathy, and a rousing call to arms. If you feel galvanized to take action by any of these films, don’t just sit there—explore what you can do in your community, and how you can be an ally in the long project of achieving gender equality.