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It is noteworthy that many of the movies Lansing produced were about women who, like her widowed mother, decide they are not going to be victims. Women moviegoers can thank Lansing for seeing them as an important part of the audience through the success of the many films she produced including Fatal Attraction, The First Wives Club and The Accused.

Lansing’s career was aided by her friendships with male studio executives and producers, most noteworthy of whom was Dan Melnick. A chance meeting at a dinner party resulted in a long and productive professional bond. Later she was to work with Stanley Jaffe on several very successful films. As happens in many businesses, Lansing was a classic mentee of men—but in Hollywood when one makes one’s way up, it is presumed that this is due to sexual liaisons. Mean things were said about Lansing’s ascendancy because there were too few power positions. Even the polite way of getting a big job made her suspect.

Although her career quickly accelerated, she was quoted as telling Time magazine in July 2002 that when she was named head of MGM’s story department she thought she would get a raise in salary. When the studio failed to provide it, she confronted a senior executive. “He admitted that I wasn’t earning as much as a man in an equivalent job. Then he thought about it and said, ‘We’re not going to give you a raise because you are single, you don’t have kids and you do not have a family to support.’” She knew it was wrong but at the time accepted those terms. She went on to say that being a woman influenced the kinds of movies she makes, saying that one has rational reasons for making a specific movie; a good story, the right budget, etc. “But ultimately it is in your gut and it has to be affected by who you are.”

Lansing is sometimes criticized within the industry for taking too few risks, both artistically and financially. She counters by reminding people that she made Forrest Gump after other studios had rejected the project and proudly claims that under her watch no slate of films ever lost money. She is known for relying upon test screenings by the National Research Group, using this process to decide upon re-editing or re-shooting films if necessary.

Since Lansing’s achievements in Hollywood corporate leadership, there have been many other women who have followed in her footsteps, but very few with the same kind of specious rumors of sleeping her way to the top. Lansing had to endure these insults probably out of envy for her talent and exceptional beauty.

Lansing retired from her post as chairman of Paramount Pictures in March 2005 and then founded the Sherry Lansing Foundation to raise awareness for cancer research. In 2007, Lansing received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences during the 79th Annual Academy Awards. Lansing was honored for her help in co-founding the Stand Up To Cancer initiative and for her many other charitable contributions. She has sat on the boards of many companies and organizations, including the EnCorps STEM Teachers Program, the Broad Museum, the Carter Center, the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the Pacific Council on International Policy, the Scripps Research Institute, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, the Citizens’ Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Stem Cell Research, the American Red Cross Board of Governors Advisory Committee, the Dole Food Company, and the W. M. Keck Foundation. She has also served as a trustee of the of the American Association for Cancer Research.