Gender issue emerges in all workspaces. Femininity always identified as weak, small, quiet, dependent and emotional through American history. Regarding filmmaking, we still think it's a masculinity work, and the women are often relegated to feminine jobs as assistants or so. "However, a close examination of the history of American cinema before and during its classical ear reveals that their gendered expectations were not absolute. A few women did become motion picture directors and producers, and there were also women who had successful careers as screenwriters. Of course, female movie stars and actresses were more numerous and better known than those few women working behind the camera" [1] (Benshoff, Griffin, 2009, p. 217). In American silent film, during the 1910s to 1930s, women’s roles and social statuses changed, and this transition was represented by films, both in in front of camera and behind of camera. Specifically, this paper will analyse three films to show this shifting process, Birth of a Nation (1915), Sherlock Jr. (1924) and the Blonda Venus (1932).

Jiayu Zhu. Changing Women Social Status and Roles in Silent Film During the 1910s to 1930s. Frontiers in Art Research (2021) Vol. 3, Issue 4: 1-4. https://doi.org/10.25236/FAR.2021.030401.

[1] Griffin, H. M. (2009). America on film: repersenting race, class, gender, and sexuality at the movies. Wiley-Blackwell, 217-222

[2] Daniel Bernardi, “Integrating Race into the Narrator System,” in Jeffrey Geiger and R.L. Rutsly, eds., Film Analysis: A Norton Reader (New York: W.W. Norton, 2013), 58-72.

[3] Griffin, H. M. (2009). America on film: repersenting race, class, gender, and sexuality at the movies. Wiley-Blackwell, 239

[4] Griffith (Director). (1915). The Birth of a Nation [Motion Picture].

[5] Patricia White. (1998). "Review Of "A Fine Romance: Five Ages Of Film Feminism" By P. Mellencamp And "Kiss Me Deadly: Feminism And Cinema For The Moment" Edited By L. Jayamanne". Signs. Volume 23, Issue 2. 519-524.

[6] WOODWARD, KATHERINE S. “COLLEGE COURSE FILE: AMERICAN FILM COMEDY.” Journal of Film and Video, vol. 42, no. 2, 1990, pp. 71–84. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20687899.

[7] Fusco, Katherine. (2015). Squashing the Bookworm: Manly Attention and Male Reading in Silent Film. Modernism/modernity. 22. 627-650. 10.1353/mod.2015.0057.

[8] Hal Gladfelder, “The Screen and the Mirror,” in Jeffrey Geigerand R.L. Rutsly, eds., Film Analysis: A Norton Reader (New York: W.W. Norton, 2013), 116-35.

[9] Kaplan, E. (1988). Women And Film, "Fetishism and the repression of Motherhood in Von Sternberg's Blonde Venus(1932)". New York & London: Routledge, 49-59

[10] Kaplan, E. (1988). Women And Film, "Introduction". New York & London: Routledge, 2-20

[11] Kaplan, E. (1988). Women And Film, "Fetishism and the repression of Motherhood in Von Sternberg's Blonde Venus(1932)". New York & London: Routledge, 49-59

[12] Griffin, H. M. (2009). America on film: repersenting race, class, gender, and sexuality at the movies. Wiley-Blackwell, 222-227

[13] Mahar, Karen. “Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood.” Google Books, JHU Press, 2008, books.google.com/books?id=8Y6IMGGiZfoC&dq=female%2Bfilmmakers&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s.

[14] Gaylyn Studlar, R. A. (1996). "The Perils of Pleasure? Fan Magazine Discourse as Women's Commodified Culture in the 1920s", Silent Film. London: Athlone London.

[15] Sumiko Higashi, J. M. (2002). The New Woman and Comsumer Culture, A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema. Durham&London: Duke University Press, 298-332.

[16] Sumiko Higashi, J. M. (2002). The New Woman and Comsumer Culture, A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema. Durham&London: Duke University Press, 298-332.

[17] Kaplan, E. (1988). Women And Film, "Fetishism and the repression of Motherhood in Von Sternberg's Blonde Venus(1932)". New York & London: Routledge, 49-59

[18] Bordwell, “Monumental Heroics,” The Silent Cinema Reader, 68-88