Study Says Women Are Still Underrepresented on TV in Front of the Cameras and Behind the Scenes

Progress has stalled overall when it comes to equal representation for women both on screen and behind the scenes. That was the finding of the latest edition of the “Boxed In” report, an annual study of women’s employment in television. The report was released on by Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.

In the 2014-2015 television season, women accounted for 40 percent of the speaking characters in broadcast, cable and Netflix programs. (For the cable figures, Lauzen studied A&E, AMC, FX, HBO, History, Showtime, TNT and USA.) This is the same percentage from the 2013-2014 season, and down slightly from 2012-2013 (42 percent). Behind the scenes, women collectively comprise just 25 percent of television’s creators, producers, directors, writers, editors and directors of photography. While the proportion of female series creators is up -- 22 percent, compared with 19 percent in 2014 -- the percentage of female writers and directors has gone down slightly. The overall figures are slightly better when broadcast networks are isolated -- 42 percent of speaking roles, 27 percent of behind-the-scenes roles -- but are still flat compared with recent years.