Variety had a luncheon last week where they honored over 30 women for their impact on the business and included two pieces on how Sweden and Norway are working on getting more women directors (they implemented a mandate) and a report on the great work that Geena Davis does through Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.
While I am always impressed whenever we get see real women in the business acknowledged for their work, in most of the profiles the women talked about their philanthropic work and very few of them do any activist work with women.
Here are the women in the piece who do work to support women. Some women identified specific organizations and charities, other just an area of focus. Some in the piece did not give any indication of their philanthropic endeavors.
Katherine Pope (president of TV, Chernin Entertainment): Girls Inc
Jennifer Nicholson Salke (Entertainment president, NBC): Girls Inc
Suzanne Gluck (co-head of WME’s worlwide literary dept)- Planned Parenthood
Dawn Hudson (CEO, AMPAS): RAINN
Mary J. Blige (singer): Ffawn, The Mark J. Blige and Steve Stoute Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now- “aims to empower and encourage women by creating and supporting programs that foster education, career development, self-esteem and personal growth.”
Lorrie Bartlett (co-head of talent, ICM): Women’s Care Cottage
Sonya Rosenfeld (Agent, CAA): Step Up and breast cancer research
Jennifer Aniston (actress): St Jude Children’s Hospital. Promoting woman’s health and cancer awareness.
Kathy Bates (actress): Ovarian Cancer National Alliance
Emma Stone (actress): Gilda’s Club and the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation
Leslee Feldman (head of casting- Dreamworks): We Advance (women in Haiti)
Nicki Minaj (siner): Susan G. Komen
Bethenny Frankel (reality TV star): Step Up Women’s Network
Sonia Friedman (Theatre producer) : breast cancer awareness