In Women Laughing, longtime New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly sets out to explore her lifelong passion for women’s humor and cartooning by speaking, laughing, and drawing with a diverse group of remarkable women who create cartoons for the iconic magazine. Inspired by her acclaimed book Very Funny Ladies and Liza’s own biography, the film also looks back at the fascinating history and evolution of single panel cartoons- from the 1920s, to the present- and reveals how far women have come in a field historically dominated by men. 

Women Laughing includes intimate conversations with some of the most celebrated and groundbreaking cartoonists at The New Yorker including Roz Chast, Emily Flake, Sarah Akinterinwa, Liana Fink, Amy Hwang, and Bishakh Som. Liza also speaks with Emma Allen, the magazine’s first female cartoon editor. During a dynamic group roundtable discussion with ten cartoonists, we also meet artists Emily Hopkins, Maggie Larson, Arenza Pena-Popo and Victoria Roberts. Together, they reflect on the essential work of women cartoonists, and outline the many challenges that lie ahead. Along the way, we hear about what drives them, the obstacles they’ve faced, their creative processes, and much more. 

The film also journeys back in time to the earliest days of The New Yorker, a magazine founded by married journalists Harold Ross and Jane Grant in 1925. Surprisingly, the very first issue featured a cartoon by a woman, Brooklyn native Ethel Plummer. Yet despite their earlier successes, by the 1950s women cartoonists had all but disappeared from the magazine, not significantly returning until the late 1970s. Women Laughing looks back at the lives of some of the pioneering women cartoonists whose remarkable and dramatic stories have long been overlooked. 

A hundred years since its founding, the cartoons of The New Yorker remain the benchmark of the form and beloved around the world, and the magazine has seen tremendous progress. Today half of the cartoonists identify as female or non-binary, and many more people of color are joining the community, bringing cartoons to a whole new audience. Women Laughing is ultimately a joyful celebration of women, art, and the creative spirit. It offers a unique insider’s look at the state of women’s humor over the last century, through the perspectives of the pioneering cartoonists, then and now,  who have wrestled with some of the central social issues of our time.