The term celluloid ceiling is a variant on glass ceiling, and refers to women being statistically under-represented in creative positions in Hollywood. Statistics compiled by Martha M. Lauzen, PhD, at San Diego State University, analyze the gender breakdown amid 2,718 editors, producers, executive producers, directors and cinematographers employed by top grossing productions. The 2006 Celluloid Ceiling Report[1] studied films of 2006 with combined domestic box office grosses of approximately $8.9 billion. It found women comprised 7% of directors, 10% of writers, 16% of executive producers, 20% of producers, 21% of editors, and 2% of cinematographers in the films studied.
After discussing the celluloid ceiling problem with Lauzen in 2003, Chicago film critic Jan Lisa Huttner began an internet-based initiative called WITASWAN (Women in the Audience Supporting Women Artists Now). The WITASWAN mission is to convince women that the best way to puncture the celluloid ceiling is to use "the power of the purse": buy tickets to movies made by women directors and screenwriters, rent DVDs made by women directors and screenwriters, etc.