American women who contributed their talent to the silent film industry are still largely unrecognized today. In The Silent Feminists, Anthony Slide shows how "[d]uring the first three decades of its existence, the American film industry was, in many ways, a woman's world." His work documents the lives and careers of America's first women directors and provides an introduction to the subject of women in the American silent-film industry. He highlights a number of female pioneers, including Alice Guy Blache, Lois Weber, Margery Wilson, Mrs. Wallace Reid, Frances Marion, and Dorothy Arzner. With this book he continues to unveil the history of the women who, with little recognition, helped pave the way for females in the film business today.