This is the book I wish I could've written. Or at least read when I started university and actually began learning about the film industry and its history.

For the four years that I studied film and the practice of making it, the syllabus was almost entirely male-focused. I could count on one hand the number of films or television shows we watched with female/BIPOC/LGBTQIA+/disabled filmmakers, writers, producers or majority actors.

Helen O'Hara's examination on how, from the very beginnings of cinema, women have been fighting for greater equity, both in front of and behind the camera, is utterly fascinating and brilliantly discussed. Beginning with Alice Guy-Blache, Lois Weber, Marion E Wong - who all made films in the early, experimental phases of film production - and moving right up to the present day, it pulls forward a history of Hollywood that explores how we got to where we are and how we can make it better.

Aside from the book restoring some of my faith in my chosen profession (O'Hara has a statistic of only 16% of screenwriters of the top 250 movies in one year being female), the author articulated thoughts that I have never been able to. In chapters dedicated to Auteur Theory, which I had to study in depth, her analysis of this blanket term being used to excuse dickish, predatory and bullying behaviour by male directors lauded as 'geniuses' is one of the central reasons I dislike applying the term to anyone - not to mention that giving one person all the credit for an entire film does a complete disservice to the thousands of other people who contributed.

If you're looking for a book on Hollywood and women and its history - this is it. Though perhaps not the most all encompassing - you would need several volumes to do that - it blends the historical with the contemporary, giving a road-map towards greater equality for all who remain underrepresented in Hollywood.