CMU School of Drama


Saturday, July 20, 2013

Directors UK Study Female Directors BBC ITV

The Mary Sue: Directors UK, a professional association of film and TV directors, has released a study on the gender breakdown of directors working in television in the UK. The tl;dr of their findings is that last year only eight percent of episodes of television drama were directed by women, with the number of female directors for the BBC and ITV’s flagship shows–Doctor Who and Poirot, respectively—totaling an impressive zero. I’m sorry, did I say impressive? I meant “incredibly frustrating,” especially when you consider five years ago five percent of those shows’ directors were repping it for the ladies.

1 comment:

Paulina Rugart said...

So men acting smug is what’s right here? I think that the industry needs to put themselves in a place to accept women in their workplaces. If you are prepared to pay a man more because clearly a women would ‘never fight for higher wages and men always will, no matter’, then you’re clearly prepared for equality aren't you? When misogynistic men are leading companies and expecting women to lack authoritative skills, someone needs to say something. Women could be leading the entertainment industry if the industry could recognize that women need to be in that position. It isn't an achievement if eight percent of directors are women, it’s a number that needs to change.