Boxed In Employment of Behind-the-Scenes Women in the 2008-09 Prime-time Television Season
Martha M Lauzen, Ph.D., School of Communication, San Diego State University
The percentage of women working in powerful behind-the-scenes roles in prime-time programming airing on the five broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, NBC) remained relatively stable in the 2008-09 season when compared with prior seasons. Overall, women comprised 25% of all creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors, and directors of photography working on situation comedies, dramas, and reality programs. This represents a decline of one percentage point from 26% in 2007-08 but an increase of four percentage points from 21% in 1997-98.
by Martha M. Lauzen, Ph.D
The "Thumbs Down Report
"Thumbs Down" Report
Dr. Martha Lauzen, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University
Men write the overwhelming majority of film reviews in the nation's top newspapers. Men penned 70% and women 30% of all reviews in the newspapers considered. Entitled "Thumbs Down: The Representation of Women Critics in the Top 100 U.S. Newspapers," the first-of-its-kind study examined the numbers of women and men reviewing films at the top 100 U.S. daily newspapers during Fall 2007. The study found that of the newspapers featuring film reviews, 47% had no reviews written by women critics, writers or freelancers. In contrast, only 12% had no reviews written by men critics, writers or freelancers.
The Celluloid Ceiling
The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women on the Top 250 Films of 2007
Martha M Lauzen, Ph.D., School of Communication, San Diego State University
"In 2007, women comprised 15% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films. This represents
a decline of 2 percentage points from 1998 and represents no change from 2006.
The Glass Ceiling Persists
The Glass Ceiling Persists: The Third Annual APPC Report on Women Leaders in Communication Companies
The Third Annual Annenberg Public Policy Center Report on Women Leaders in Communication Companies (2003)
"Companies with more women in corporate leadership have more women-friendly benefits packages but . . . women in communications companies made no progress in past year in breaking the glass ceiling. Companies with more women on boards of directors also tend to have more women in executive positions, more women-friendly benefits packages, and better maternity leave."
DGA Report
DGA Report: Top 40 Primetime TV Lacks Diversity in the Director’s Chair
DGA Magazine (July 2004)
The Directors Guild of America recently released a report on the employment of women and minority directors by television networks on the "top forty" prime time drama and comedy series in 2003-2004. The report shows that 86 percent of the episodes were directed by Caucasian males, and that women and minority directors continue to be missing from some of the best-known series line-ups.
Danish Film & TV
Gender and Work in Danish Film & TV 1992-2002
Mette Knudsen and Jane Rowley
WIFT/Denmark
"The Danish film industry is booming. And internationally women who direct in Denmark have a share in the success — and play an even larger role in marketing it…
The only problem with the ‘successful woman' image is that it was not what we were hearing from our members — and not what we were seeing in the cinema and on our TV screens."