Inclusion rider speech leaves viewers stumped

Frances Mcdormand gave a powerful acceptance speech for her best actress Oscar.

Calling on all the female winners and nominees to stand with her as she claimed the prize for her role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Mcdormand finished her speech with a phrase that left some viewers puzzled.

“I have two words to leave you with tonight ladies and gentlemen,” she said. “Inclusion. Rider.”

So what is an inclusion rider?

The phrase was coined by Dr Stacy Smith of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative of Californian university USC Annenberg in a 2016 TED talk she gave titled “The data behind Hollywood’s sexism”.

Between 2007 and 2015, Dr Smith said she analysed more than 800 films and catalogued every speaking character by their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and disabilities. Less than a third of all speaking roles are given to girls or women, she said, despite women making up half of the population. When it came to other demographics, the numbers were even more unbalanced.

She suggested a number of solutions to address the imbalance, including for the most in-demand female stars to demand the realistic representation of women and minorities in their contracts.