You’re on the right track—there are a handful of women from the silent era who pushed boundaries and their fingerprints linger in genre tropes we still use. Think of Alice Guy‑Poirée’s rhythmical editing and how that’s echoed in Hitchcock’s suspense. The modern film’s reliance on the “female gaze” can trace back to that early experimentation, but it’s also a way for studios to recast old power plays as progressive. So the echo exists, but it’s often buried under layers of rebranding. Keep digging; that’s where the real insight lives.

Sounds like a perfect research project—just remember to bring a magnifying glass and a sturdy coffee mug; those early voices won’t surface without a little elbow grease. Good luck hunting the echo—just don’t forget to check the footnotes.