Most women directors don’t like to talk about gender. They’d rather just get on with their work. “I never think of myself as just being a female director,” says France’s Julia Ducournau, whose recent film “Raw” tells the story of a lifelong vegetarian who develops a taste for raw flesh after a hazing at her veterinary college. “I see myself as being a director and that's it. It just so happens that I'm a woman.” But sometimes, things happen that don’t let them forget Hollywood’s gender disparity. For some, the reminder might come after they’re mistaken for a production assistant for the umpteenth time. For others, it’s during the meeting with the studio head who says he just doesn't think she's ready to make the "budget leap." But for Ry Russo-Young, it was while making small talk in a studio lobby that she first felt the whisper-soft tentacles of gender discrimination.

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