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UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
Women had a dramatically reduced role behind the scenes during the 2010-11 television season, one also marked by fewer actresses onscreen. Only 15% of writing jobs for prime time shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW were held by women, compared with 29% in the previous season, according to a new study. Women accounted for 11% of television directors, down from 16% in the 2009-10 season. Program creators fell to 18% from 21%, and producers dropped to 37% from 39%. As for onscreen jobs, 41% of all on-air characters were female, down from 43%, an all-time high, in the previous season. The male-to-female ratio differed by genre and network. Reality programs had the highest percentage of women working behind the scenes (28%), followed by drama series (25%) and comedies (22%). For reality shows, that percentage was unchanged from last season, but the female ranks shrank for both dramas and comedies, which were 27% female last season. Women also were more heavily represented onscreen in reality shows (46% of all characters), followed by dramas (40%), then comedies (34%). The CW and ABC led the networks with the highest percentage of women behind the scenes (28%); this compared with 26% at CBS, 22% at NBC and 18% at Fox. Additionally, 52% of characters on CW shows were female, with 43% on ABC, 40% on CBS, 39% on Fox and 36% on NBC. The study surveyed cable programming for the first time this year and found that 23% of those working behind the scenes were women. In cable, women accounted for 31% of producers, 25% of writers, 24% of editors, 21% of executive producers, 20% of creators, 10% of directors and 0% of directors of photography. The San Diego State University-based Center for Study of Women in Television and Film has been conducting its study since 1995-96, and does so by surveying one random episode from each network series in a season.
Study: Women Lose Ground Behind And In Front Of Camera During 2010-11 TV Season
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These studies are such bogus manipulation of numbers. Are there less women working — absolutely. Are some unfairly passed over? I wouldn’t doubt it. But these statistics are bogus. You cannot give an accurate mathematical analysis without a proper starting point. And the gender makeup of the overall population is not the proper starting point.
Until whoever does these studies is willing to figure out what percentage of scripts in the pile are male written versus female written, then there’s no way to reflect just WHAT the percentage of those working actually means.
It means THOSE are the ones working. The starting point is the data collection from the point in 2010 where they began to the point in 2011 where they ended. This isn’t a study of the percentage of pitches that were heard vs. pitches that were bought OR scripts that were ordered vs. pilots that were made. This is an article that states of facts of those women employed in such capacity in the business. Your comment reeks of blame. Thank you for your obviously male opinion. My comment is absent of finger-pointing and is most identifiable as that of a female writer.
OK. But dude has a point.
If 50% of the people trying to get a job are women, and only 15% get a job… that’s one thing.
If 15% of applicants are women and 15% of hires are women… we’re not talking about a problem that is going to get solved by hiring practices (without unfairly discriminating against men). If that’s the case, we’re talking about a problem that can only be solved by outreach to high school and college females interested in the arts. And even then… maybe it isn’t solvable. There aren’t as many male nurses, but I don’t see anyone bitching about it.
I’d love to know what ALL the numbers suggest. Surely the agencies must know what percentage of prospective writers are female. They track submissions.
Wow, they sure blowhards at that network
Check out the network exec lists in TV. Find me one major television company that has more men working in development or current than woman. Can’t………….
Since when are women taking over TV network exec jobs?
Okay so they’re in management. How about in CREATIVE positions?
Who gives a crap whether there are less women in Creative – what we SHOULD give a crap about is that there are less creative PERIOD! There are far less writers and directors being employed than every before – doesn’t matter whether they are men, women or something in between. Let’s focus on the REAL problem, folks!
Ummm…those working in development are usually the ones deciding what creatives/projects to work with and how to develop them for sale/airing.
On a side note, I’ve worked on more then one network show where a lone female writer has tried to get other females on the staff fired. And been succesful at it. This is one reason why surveys such as this are useless. They might make for a good headline and get the Gloria Steinam/Allred true-believers all fired up, but as usual, there’s much more to it.
There’s truth to what you say. The biggest obstacle to a woman can be…other women. Especially if the former happens to be attractive. Women will trash other women. Women are held back by men and by women. Ain’t easy, no wonder the numbers are so low.
If the numbers say so, but…
I’ve been on many sets recently and just today was commenting on how many women occupy behind-the-camera positions lately, from directors to ADs (entire department) to DPs to on-set to grip/electric. I couldn’t offer any percentages of crew, compared to previous years, but it’s more than obvious.
And it’s a good thing.
While I think the point is very well taken, I’m not sure why their methodology is to choose one random episode from each network series.
It would be pretty trivial to write a script that pulls the full technical staff and actor lists from IMDB and cross-reference them that way. This would have several methodological advantages (no possibility of sampling error most notably) as well as enabling more detailed statistical analysis–do women tend to contribute more or less to “major episodes” (IE sweeps week episodes, premieres, finales, arc premieres) versus regular episodes? Do women tend to graduate from staff writers to head writers more or less than men? Do women directing episodes tend to be more prolific or less prolific than men in terms of number of shows? These questions could be answered, but not by their methodology.
In addition, what I’m suggesting would not take any additional effort, since the bulk of the heavy lifting would be automated. Whichever grad student is being paid to watch TV can just as easily be paid to spot check computer-generated data for accuracy.
I agree this seems a little fishy. Especially given the number of high profile female centric shows on television this season – Whitney, 2 Broke Girls, Prime Suspect etc.
But then again, there’s that cross-dressing show on ABC, so perhaps there’s a far deeper conspiracy going on here.
Thanks for posting this, Deadline. As a female student filmmaker who is attending college, this really matters!
another thing about their methodology is they seem to be omitting some Staff Writer positions since most shows don’t list Staff Writer-level staff writers in the credit roll. And a lot of shows try to compensate for the overall gender disparity of writing staffs by hiring women at the Staff Writer level. I’m glad someone’s doing this study, but I wish they’d use a more thorough methodology.
I don’t buy it. I’ve been passed over a number of times because a show HAS TO add another female voice to the room. She gets fired a year later and makes off with MY MONEY!!!!
Grrrrr. All them wimmen makin’ stuff harder for the menfolk! Like it isn’t hard enough, amIright?
It’s true. If there’s ever a day where there’s parity in Hollywood for men and women, it will only be because we boob-flaunters shoved geniuses like Rent Death out of the way with our whole “fairness” schtick. In reality, we women couldn’t write our way out of a… what was the word I was looking for? Hell, we don’t even like writing. We’d much rather read a book about a 100-year-old perv vampire with a squirrel blood fetish macking on a teenage girl or two estranged sisters finding a way back to each other on Martha’s Vineyard than write some multilayered TV show. Anyway, we all know we hags belong at home baking babies and birthing cookies and so on. And yet… as long as we can keep Rent Death on the dole, it’s worth the sacrifice.
powerfully unfunny
If you’ve been passed over I guarantee it was not because a woman took your job. It’s more probably because you don’t make the cut. So sick of men blaming their problems on women.
interesting choices for comments here. the men doth protest too much, me thinks…
agreed. that said, the Center for Study of Women in Television and Film should probably survey more than one random show. maybe three random shows? or one from each network?
now i know why, ABC keep making all these women tv shows?
Are the only ones bitching about the findings men? Typical.
Are the only ones who don’t understand how legitimate studies work women? Typical.
Using the word “bitch” in your “Name” is not helping your cause, just FYI.
First off, random sampling is a perfectly statistically valid way of measuring something. Your random personal experience, rent death, on the other hand is meaningless. Besides, I’m sure you didn’t notice all the jobs you didn’t get that went to other men — just those where a woman beat you out.
Any way you look at it, these are depressing numbers. Not surprising, just depressing. But young filmfemmes, don’t give up. We need you in the industry!
amen.
These numbers actually look high to me. The movie/TV business is a lot like horse racing — you see who’s in the winner circle but you don’t see who never made it to the track on race day. As in, it’s easy to focus on the winning horses and how good they have it and how well-cared for they are, therefor horse racing must be good for horses, but you don’t see the thousands and thousands of would-be race horses who end up in a glue truck or living miserable lives with scabs and overgrown hooves in some Tennessee trailer park.
There’s a similar principle at work in the producing/directing/writing game. Namely, women are too smart to end up in the glue truck. Everyone comments on the “white guys with deals” announcements, but what about the thousands of white guys still waiting tables when they’re 35 and writing specs? One in ten thousand of them will hit paydirt and sell feature specs and pilots and get deals. The other 9,999 will be wondering why they’re still waiting tables on their 40th birthday, realizing it’s a little late to do something else with their lives.
How many women are willing to put off families/stable careers/any semblance of financial stability well into their 30s? Not many. They know better, and they’re getting their MBAs and law degrees while 35-year old men are still eating Rahmen and living without health insurance and writing specs. Then when one in ten thousand of these men land a deal, everyone bemoans “another white guy” landing a deal.
DHD needs to run more stories about “another 40 year old white guy with no health insurance or job prospects because he spent the past fifteen years writing specs that never sold” and balance it with “another smart women who gave writing a go for a few years before becoming a dentist and buying her second vacation home.”
I enjoy how you managed to make an article about the disparities of women working in one of the most important aspects of popular culture about dudes. Seriously. Well done.