For years, the Writers Guild of America has called attention to discrimination in the entertainment industry. As part of that effort, the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) has released this updated Inclusion Report Card with data from the 2019 TV Staffing Season.
The report states that women and minorities showed slight gains in the 2019-2020 TV series staffing season compared to a year ago, despite disruptions in the hiring process caused during the 105-day standoff between the guild and Hollywood’s talent agencies.
WGA members concerned about the effect of the agency campaign on our most vulnerable members—including women and people of color—should be encouraged by these results. While these groups remain underrepresented relative to their percentages in the overall U.S. population and there is much more work to be done to stop systemic discrimination in the hiring of writers, employment data from 2019 shows that our progress has not been stalled.
“Questions have been asked about the effect of the agency campaign on our most vulnerable members, including women and people of color,” the guild’s agency negotiating told WGA members. “We now have data on TV series staffs for the 2019-2020 season that shows a slight increase in diversity over 2018-2019 levels. This season, writing staffs were 39% women, compared to 37% last season, and 30% people of color, compared to 29% last season.”
Ten years ago, women got less than 30% of the TV staff jobs, and people of color got less than 20%.
