CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Number of female roles reaches all-time high

News: Show Business Weekly: "Spend a minute channel surfing and you’ll find no shortage of prominent female characters. From the CW’s “Gossip Girl” to TNT’s “The Closer” to ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” women seem to be dominating the primetime airwaves. Now, a new report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film has confirmed that the number of female roles on television programs increased significantly over the last decade."

7 comments:

AllisonWeston said...

I do not find it surprising that there are an unusually large pool of female roles in the entertainment industry. There is a large market for women between the ages of 15-30 who watch a lot of television. Women like to watch women like them on t.v. because they can relate to them. In recent years, t.v. studios have been developing television series based off of popular novels for young women and it certainly does sell. Look at "Gossip Girl", "The Hills", "Sex and the City", etc. All the main characters are women in television shows targeting female viewers.

Katherine! said...

The fact that women are starting to appear more on television is a very encouraging thing. Seeing more strong female roles on televisions will really help the male female ration of many6 careers. The other part of this article that is interesting is that women are not just shown as housewives, they are also in the workforce. The only sad thing of this whole women in the workforce is that they still aren't dominate or even close when it com,es to the backstage writing, directing, and other technical aspects! Women need to get out there and do more backstage.

Anonymous said...

Not only have female roles in television increased, but there's a healthy amount of strong, independent women. I wouldn't think it would be much of an improvement if 43% of characters were women if they were all mindless bimbos. However, the increased screen time women are receiving makes it easy to forget that it's still a man's world behind the scenes!

Megan Spatz said...

Yes it's great that there are more women on tv today, but shouldn't it be considered how these women are being presented? I mean, women in the roles of "desperate housewives" and "gossip girls" aren't exactly spreading a positive message about women to the world. We should ask ourselves if all these women on tv are being represented in a positive way that helps women in the world advance with respect.

Allegra Rege said...

All I have to say is good for them. I agree with Katherine that this is definitely a step in the right direction, plus the fact that they are not only shown behind a stove in a house dress also helps. Now all there is to do is get some good women behind the scenes as well. The industry could use more women screen writers to put new female characters on the screen, because like the article said men have been doing the majority of the writing lately and it would be refreshing to have a woman's input and outlook properly represented.

Anonymous said...

I am pleased that women's roles in society have been cast into brighter and perhaps more realistic light. Though Gossip Girl and the Hills certainly do not present a realistic vision of normal early womanhood or even adolescence, shows like Sex and the City, which blew the top off the topic of female sexuality and One Tree Hill which has ironically found one of its main charectors in a young marriage with a child, present the ways in which our views of modern womanhood have changed.

NorthSide said...

Sure, the number of roles available to women has risen, but what about quality? I'm by no means a feminist, especially one that squashes any so-called demeanouring role models, but are the characters of Desperate Housewives, Priviliged, 90210, Gossip Girl, or any shows like that really a forward march for women? In some ways yes, because they are powerful independent women, but at the same time material based characters. The direction of female roles may not have changed much if not decreased more so, but does it matter when you are making six figures an episode?