By employing only women directors on “Queen Sugar” and via her film collective ARRAY, which spotlights work from women and people of color, Ava DuVernay has done plenty to fight against Hollywood’s tendency to legitimize only white male voices. And, as DuVernay told People, she dedicates herself to lifting up women and people of color in film because the lack of diversity in the industry is there by design.

“I would say that it’s quite intentional,” DuVernay said when People interviewed her as part of its 25 Women Changing the World issue. “You’re basically saying, ‘This is what we want, and this is what we’re going to have.’ There’s no way you can tell me that there hasn’t been effort put into exclusion.”

That’s for sure. Considering that films with diverse casts consistently gross more at the box office, women buy the majority of movie tickets, and the number of non-white movie viewers is increasing, there’s an obvious demand for inclusivity onscreen. So the low numbers of women and people of color behind-the-scenes don’t feel like any unfortunate accident — they feel like a conscious choice on behalf of the studios.

“I wanted to make films about the interiority of women of color, people of color,” DuVernay explained of ARRAY, which she launched in 2010 as AFFRM. “I knew there wasn’t a large market out in the studio system for those kinds of films, so I decided to just distribute on my own. It started as a function of survival.”

ARRAY’s previous releases include Sonia Lowman Doc “Teach Us All,” Heidi Saman’s “Namour,” Rebecca Johnson’s “Honeytrap,” Sara Blecher’s “Ayanda,” and DuVernay’s own “Middle of Nowhere.”

DuVernay is the first woman of color to helm a $100 million feature. The Oscar-nominated doc “13th,” “Selma,” and the upcoming “A Wrinkle in Time” are among her other credits. DuVernay created the OWN family drama “Queen Sugar,” which is currently in its second season. She’s also working on a Netflix miniseries about the Central Park Five and a TV adaptation of Octavia Butler’s “Dawn.”

“A Wrinkle in Time” hits theaters March 9, 2018.