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Welcome to the website about movies directed by women. This site includes information on historical women directors, current and past statistics on women directors, and also includes female director interviews. Please visit the rest of our site.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
___________________________
Boxed In:
Women On Screen and Behind the Scenes in the 2003-04 Prime-time Season
___________________________
Martha M. Lauzen, Ph.D., School of Communication, San Diego State University,
San Diego, CA 92182. Copyright © 2004 -- All rights reserved.
_______________________________________________________________
In the 2003-04 prime-time season, women comprised 23% of all creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors, and directors of photography working on situation comedies and dramas airing on the broadcast networks. This percentage has remained virtually unchanged for the last six seasons. The percentage of women writers reached a recent historical high of 31% while women editors plummeted to a recent historical low of 10%. The percentages of women creators, executive producers, producers, directors, and directors of photography remained relatively stable.
On screen, male characters outnumbered females by almost two to one (60% males, 40% females). Further, female characters were younger than their male counterparts. Fully 74% of all characters in their 50s and 78% of all characters in their 60s were male. Female characters were more likely to be identified by their marital status while males were more likely to be identified by their occupational status.
Using one randomly selected episode of every prime-time drama and situation comedy airing on the six networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, UPN, WB), this study reports employment figures for women working on screen and behind the scenes in the 2003-04 season. The following summary also offers historical comparisons of last season with similar percentages dating back to 1997-98. By counting the numbers of female and male characters and women and men working in the behind-the-scenes roles listed above, this study provides an accurate and timely look at women's representation in prime-time television.
>>FIGURE 1
Percent of Behind-the-Scenes Women in the 2003-2004 Season
>>FIGURE 2
Historical Comparison of Percentages of Behind-the-Scenes Women
Employed in Prime Time
>>FIGURE 3
Historical Comparison of Percentages of Female and Male Characters
Findings/Behind-the-Scenes Representation of Women
o This study examined 1,852 individuals working behind-the-scenes on one randomly selected episode of every prime-time drama and situation comedy airing on the six networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, UPN, WB) in the 2003-04 season.
o Overall, women comprised 23% of all creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors, and directors of photography working on the programs considered. This is the same percentage of women who worked behind the scenes in the 1999-2000 season.
o On the programs analyzed, women fared best as producers (33%), followed by writers (31%), executive producers (20%), creators (18%), directors (14%), editors (10%), and directors of photography (0%) (see Figure 1).
o By role, the percentages of women executive producers, producers, creators, and writers increased slightly, while the percentages of women directors and editors decreased (see Figure 2). For the seventh year in a row, there wasn't a single female director of photography working on any of the episodes considered.
o In the 2003-04 season, the percentage of women writers reached a recent historical high of 31%. However, the percentage of women editors plummeted to a recent historical low of 10%.
o Behind-the-scenes women were slightly more likely to work on situation comedies (25%) than dramas (21%).
o Behind-the-scenes women were more likely to work on domestic situation comedies and dramas (25%) than on workplace situation comedies and dramas (20%).
o Programs airing on UPN employed the highest percentage of behind-the-scenes women (33%), followed by WB (28%), NBC (23%), CBS (21%), ABC (20%), and Fox (18%).
o Women comprised 18% of creators. Seventy eight percent (78%) of the programs considered had no female creators.
o Women accounted for 20% of executive producers. Thirty four percent (34%) of the programs considered had no female executive producers.
o Women comprised 33% of producers. Fourteen percent (14%) of the programs considered had no female producers.
o Women accounted for 14% of directors. Eighty six percent (86%) of the programs considered had no female directors.
o Women comprised 31% of writers. Sixty two percent (62%) of the programs considered had no female writers.
o Women accounted for 10% of editors. Ninety percent (90%) of the programs considered had no female editors.
o Women comprised 0% of directors of photography. One hundred percent (100%) of the programs considered had no female directors of photography.
Findings/On-Screen Representation of Women
o This study examined 1,580 characters appearing on one randomly selected episode of every drama and situation comedy airing on the six broadcast networks during the 2003-04 prime-time season.
o Females accounted for 40% and males 60% of all characters (see Figure 3). This is even with women's representation in the 1999-00 season. Similarly, females comprised 40% and males 60% of major characters.
o Female characters were more likely to appear on situation comedies (44%) than dramas (38%).
o Female characters were more likely to appear on domestic situation comedies and dramas (43%) than on workplace situation comedies and dramas (38%).
o Viewers were most likely to see female characters on NBC programs (43%), followed by WB and UPN (42%), ABC and Fox (40%), and CBS (38%).
o Overall, female characters were younger than their male counterparts. Sixty four percent (64%) of all characters in their 40s, 74% of all characters in their 50s, and 78% of all characters in their 60s were male. Women 40 and older comprised 12% of all characters. In contrast, men 40 and older accounted for 26% of all characters.
o Female characters were overwhelmingly white (74%), followed by African-Americans (15%), Latinas (5%), Asians (3%), and other-worldly characters such as demons and extra-terrestrials (2%).
o Female characters were significantly more likely to be identified by their marital status, while males were more likely to be identified by their occupational status.
o Ninety nine percent (99%) of all prime-time characters were heterosexual, 1% were gay or bisexual.
o Among major characters only, males were more likely to hold roles as leaders than females. For example, 100% of those holding political office were male, 100% of corporate leaders and 77% of business owners were male. However, 56% of those serving in the judicial branch were female.
Findings/Relationship Between Women On Screen and Women Behind the Scenes
>>Figure 1.
Percent of Behind-the-Scenes Women in the 2003-2004 Season
*includes directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, and cinematographers
>>Figure 2.
Historical Comparison of Percentages of Behind-the-Scenes Women Employed in Prime Time
NOTE: The sampling strategy for the last five seasons (2003-04, 2002-03, 2001-02, 2000-01, 1999- 00) differed slightly from that used in the first season (1997-98). The figures for the last five seasons reflect a sample including one randomly chosen episode of every situation comedy and drama aired on the six broadcast networks. The figures for the first season reflect a sample including one randomly chosen episode of every situation comedy, drama, and animated series ranking among the top 100 programs in that season.
>>Figure 3.
Historical Comparison of Percentages of Female and Male Characters
NOTE: The sampling strategy for the last four seasons (2003-04, 2002-03, 2001-02, 2000-01) differed slightly from that used in the first two seasons (1998-99, 1995-96). The figures for the last four seasons reflect a sample including one randomly chosen episode of every situation comedy and drama aired on the six broadcast networks. The figures for the first two seasons reflect samples including one randomly chosen episode of every situation comedy, drama, and animated series ranking among the top 100 programs in their respective seasons.
###END
>>--By Martha M. Lauzen, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Communication, San Diego State University.
MoviesByWomen.com copyright 2005