Cate Blanchett on gender disparity in Hollywood

Los Angeles, June 30 Actress Cate Blanchett feels the 1970s gender issues are still relevant, and says it is important to remember that feminism is not just a "fashionable moment".

In an interview to Radio Times, the Oscar-winner, 51, said that the current talking points such as "same-sex marriage" and "same-sex bathrooms" were all discussed 50 years ago, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Blanchett said that women have constantly been outnumbered by men in the acting world.

"I always knew in my DNA that women were equal to men. I couldn't quite understand why the industry and work environment that I got spat into didn't reflect that, so I felt out of sync for a long time. At one point, I started doing a head count of the ratio of men to women on every set I walked on," she said.

"For my entire career, up until about four years ago, I was the one woman to 35 men. I was the one woman to 27 men. I was the one woman to 16 men. I just thought it was normal," she added.

Despite the positive changes to address the balance, Blanchett insisted that the push towards equality is "not just a fashionable moment in time".

On the work front, she will be seen in the role of Phyllis Schlafly in the series "Mrs America". It tells the story of the movement for the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, and the backlash led by conservative Schlafly.

"This show is like Groundhog Day. The discussions that we were having back in 1971 and 1972 are constantly popping up in the media today. Same-sex bathrooms. Same-sex marriage. Will women be drafted into the military? That came up earlier this year with events in Iran. It couldn't be more relevant," she said.

"I was inspired by the way the women would speak in the Seventies. There was a strong culture of robust public debate... something we've lost. We've got haranguing matches, but we haven't got a sense of public discourse," added the mother-of-four.

( With inputs from IANS )