Inasmuch as our favoritest people are writers, and more than half the writers we know are womens – and our favoritest womens too – this particular factoid seems very important to us:
Women Created 26 Percent of the Television Shows in the 2011-2012 Season – by Melissa Silverstein (IndieWire.Com)
As we get ready to launch the new television season the statistics are out for how women fared last season behind the scenes in the TV business. According to the Center for Study of Women in Television and Film the annual study, Boxed In: Employment of Behind-the-Scenes Women in the 2011-12 Prime-time Television Season by Martha Lauzen, women make up 26% of all creators, directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and directors of photography.
This is up one point from last year and five points since the 1997-98 season.
Some things to note:
- Women creators rose from 18% to 26%.
- Women writers make up 30% of the staffs.
- Women make up 25% of executive producers. That’s up three points from the previous year.
I wish the stats actually tracked the actual jobs on the TV shows including all the writing positions so we can see where women are at the different levels. Are women stuck in the staff writer positions? Are women getting promoted to the next levels? That’s what I want to know.
I am also desperate for real stats on how many women showrunners there are.
The study tracks NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and the CW. It also includes reality TV.
In terms of fairness, this obviously is still way too low. But in terms of talent? Hey, in a Biz where the definition of a good script is “one my boss will like” (thank you, old LB pal Norman Powell), who knows?