Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Leading Ladies?: Feminism And The Hollywood New Wave, Allison A. Smith

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

In the late 1960s, a new film movement emerged in Hollywood cinema known as the Hollywood New Wave. The women’s movement began roughly the same time as the Hollywood New Wave, but feminism was rarely a topic discussed in Hollywood cinema. The Hollywood New Wave is often considered a “boy’s club,” in the sense that most of the filmmakers, actors and other crewmembers were male and writing stories about male experiences. Women did have a part in these films in a limited way, yet there are some examples of strong female characters in select films.