Francine Parker - Career

Career

Francine Parker was considered an anomaly when she began her career, because there were so few female film directors working in the industry. She was considered such a novelty that producers of the early 1960s television show What's My Line? asked her to appear on the show because they were sure that the panelists would never believe that a woman would be a television director. However, the show was canceled by the network before Parker could appear.

Parker produced a series of one-hour plays for PBS called "Jews and History" in 1966. The film series explored the contributions of Jews to the arts throughout history. In a review of Jews and History the Los Angeles Times seemed astounded of the, "odds of a female producer selling anthologized culture on television."

Parker was the eleventh woman to join the Directors Guild of America when she was inducted as a member in 1971. She taught film directing at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, for 18 years.

She helped found and became president of the Women for Equality in Media. As president, she led 1971 a march on the American Film Institute for its lack of women in AFI programs that were partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The AFI responded. The number of women admitted to the AFI's Center for Advance Film Studies rose from zero in 1969 to seven women by 1973.