Why, given that 50% of screenwriters in the silent era were women and that there were quite a few female directors and producers, did women get pushed out of filmmaking and never really come back? What happened in the studio era, and why has nothing changed in all the waves of forward movement since? Why, today, do the number of female directors hover around the 10% mark, even after #MeToo and #TimesUp? Female A-list stars still earn only about half as much as their male counterparts, partly because only about 12% of leading roles go to women. Films made by or for women get smaller budgets, smaller releases and smaller marketing spend than male-made equivalents, and the picture is much, much worse for women of colour. So why is this and how do we change things? And why is Barbie such an important step forward?