Study: Female Directors Hire More Women For Behind-The-Scenes Roles

San Diego (CBS Sacramento)-- Last year's films with female directors employed a higher percentage of women for behind-the-scenes roles, according to a new study.

The recently released report comes from Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film.

"Women and the Big Picture: Behind-the Scenes Employment on the Top 700 Films of 2014" is one of the first studies to track female employment, as reported by TheWrap. The study found that for films with female directors, women made up 52 percent of writers.

The study also found that films directed by men had only 8 percent women writers.

"The findings suggest that women directors, executive producers, and producers may serve an important gateway function in the employment of other women in key behind-the-scenes roles," Lauzen said.

Out of the top 700 grossing films, women made up just 20 percent of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers.

"The findings indicate that hiring decisions for these positions may be most susceptible to mainstream film industry biases and expectations about what directors and cinematographers should look like demographically," Lauzen added.