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The American Civil Liberties Union is taking on Hollywood’s boys-club mentality.

Kathryn Bigelow gives her acceptance speech for Best Director for "The Hurt Locker" at the 82nd Academy Awards in Hollywood on March 7, 2010. She is the only female director to ever win the award. (Credit: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)
Kathryn Bigelow gives her acceptance speech for Best Director for “The Hurt Locker” at the 82nd Academy Awards in Hollywood on March 7, 2010. She is the only female director to ever win the award. (Credit: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

The organization on Tuesday called on state and federal agencies to investigate gender discrimination at major Hollywood studios, networks and talent agencies, contending that “women are systematically excluded from or underemployed in directing jobs.”

Letters sent to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs cite statistical evidence revealing dramatic disparities in the hiring of women directors in television and big-budget films.

A USC study cited in the letters found that only 1.9% of directors of the top-grossing 100 films of 2013 and 2014 were women, and of the 1,300 top-grossing films from 2002-14, only 4.1% of the directors were women.

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