backstage.com: More women than ever occupy top off-camera positions in television, but that hasn’t translated into more onscreen roles for female actors—at least not yet.
A new study from San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that women comprised 26 percent of all series creators, directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and directors of photography on prime-time broadcast television programs during the 2011–12 season.
6 comments:
The way that this article is organized doesn’t make sense. The author writes, “More women than ever occupy top off-camera positions in television, but that hasn’t translated into more onscreen roles for female actors—at least not yet.” But then goes on to tell us that women comprise 41% of all prime-time television characters, and only 26% of all television creators, producers, directors, writers, and editors. I’m sorry, but shouldn’t that sentence have been reversed? This article should have started by saying that the percentage of women playing prime-time television characters has risen in recent years to 41%, but the number of women working behind the scenes is still woefully low. The author could have used a lot of the same facts and statistics, but he should have framed the whole thing differently.
True gender equality in the entertainment industry will be reached when there are no more articles denoting "progress" to be posted on this blog.
I've always been a little disheartened by the fact that there aren't more women in TV and movies, but Pia is absolutely right; we'll never see parity in the industry if we keep going on and on about how awesome a 5% increase is.
Unfortunately, I had a gaffer on a movie tell me that he had only ever had one female electrician on his crew in his many years of working, and that she "didn't last" the span of the project. In such a male-dominated field, I can understand how a lot of women might be uncomfortable being the "pioneers" in their chosen professions, but at the same time, boys, try and accept us.
The most important thing that the industry can do is to not make a big deal about the ratio, and for individuals to not treat one another differently purely based on their gender. If I'm good at my job, regardless of what I've got going on under my work pants, then I should be respected in my field.
I was just watching a movie the other day and was thinking to myself why all the movies I've seen recently seem the same, and then I thought because they are all written by slightly dorky, artistic, secretly cool men, who used to be the boys they are writing about. And then I thought to myself why are there not more movies about women issues, which is of course a stupid thought because there are plenty of movies with women protagonist. But there is just not the same volume of film and TV about women. I just wish that women got more of a voice in film and television; I feel like if they did then things like "Sex in the City" and "Girls" wouldn't be such novelties, there would be like many other shows like them about girl issues.
It makes total sense to me that the highest percent of women who are backstage are producers. Men like having people to take care of all the problems why they can take the glory of being the director. I'm not saying every man ever does this, but I do think that many women are willing take up a producer job because they are content doing the job others don't want to.
This is really interesting. I've always heard that the "behind the scenes" industry was predominately male and im glad to hear the ratios are gradually becoming slightly more even. However, even though i know its true that males dominate our work place I find it rather odd that the Design and production classes at CMU are mostly female, im not sure if that is just a fluke or if males are more likely to go straight to the work force or what but, i was expecting to come here and be one of very few females. In Pre-college there were twice as many guys as girls, but i guess that was just chance. Im interested to see if the percentage of females changes by the time i get out into the "real world." Id also be interested to see an age break down of the males and females.
I am glad to see that more women are getting involved behind the scenes. However, I hate studies that focus on diversity. I think diversity is important and leads to better outcomes. However, I think hiring based on merit is paramount in getting the best outcome, more so than diversity. Because of this, I dislike these types of studies because I think they are focused on the wrong thing. Instead, resources should be focused on better defining the skills/abilities needed for a box, so the hiring process can be improved, and the best possible person can get the job in a way where it is difficult to let bias blind people from not bringing in the right person.
Though this is not all that practical/easy, if it could be achieved, it would naturally lead to diversity and lead to an overall better outcome.
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