A Woman's Work: The NFL's Cheerleader Problem

A Woman's Work is a beautifully crafted movie weaving the personal stories of a few NFL cheerleaders as they fight for their work place rights. It is clearly evident how much they treasure their jobs even as they grow increasingly frustrated by the lack of equity in the work place. These brave women are paving the way in the hopes that future generations will benefit. It is an incredibly moving portrait of a big issue.

This documentary of, basically, two NFL cheerleaders legally fighting back against alleged unpaid wages, poor work conditions, sexual harrassment, etc. There is little doubt that most of these accusations are true but the fact that so few are willing to stand with these two hurts their cause. The film focuses on these two women (and then in the end a brief segment on a third that was fired for posting supposedly salacious pics on-line which really did not fit the rest of the film - bad choice I think.) The law suits drag on for years.

In the end.both my wife and I were frustrated that the settlement of one case was left unclear and none of the others (additional suits were filed against other teams with no details given) were settled. An issue was made as to how many of one squad's past cheerleaders would opt in or out of a settlement but we never heard the final number. The film was informative and made the point that big business rides roughshod over the little guy but the lack of completeness of the arc of the story was very frustrating. Also frustrating was the story jumping between the Oakland and the Buffalo cheerleaders without clear definition.

Technically, the audio was uneven and some of the fill-in footage became repetitive. But overall it was adequate. It was a worthwhile but could have been more professional.