Sofia Coppola (Junkee)
Let’s kick off some basic stats about women in entertainment, shall we? Because knowledge is power, and let’s change this shit! I pulled these from a variety of sources; all figures are from 2017 unless otherwise noted.
Film:
(All figures for the top 100 domestic highest-grossing films of 2017)
- Women comprised 10% of directors, 8% of writers, and 2% of cinematographers.
- Women comprised 37% of major characters, and comprised 34% of all speaking characters.
- In terms of female characters’ race and ethnicity, 68% of female characters were white, 16% were Black, 7% were Latina, 7% were Asian, and 2% were defined as “other” (no delineation given).
- Women comprised 5% of total leaders depicted, compared to 8% for men.
TV:
(All data pulled from the 2016-2017 television season)
- Women comprised “42% of major characters on broadcast network, cable, and streaming programs.”
- For womens’ speaking roles with respect to race and ethnicity, Black women spoke in 19% of all roles, Asian women spoke in 6% of all roles, and Latina women spoke in 5% of all roles. Each group showed gains year-over-year.
- Women comprised 28% of creators, directors and writers and other above-the line functions as defined by the survey.
- Four women or fewer were employed in certain behind the scenes roles at 50% of programs.
And finally, this gem:
Hollywood’s top paid union executive—a man—earned 60 percent more than the highest-paid female union executive.
Makes you want to burn it all down, doesn’t it? And there are many more of these depressing and disappointing statistics out there.
Hopefully with all the awareness and dialogue surrounding gender disparity in the field right now, we’re on track to make some BIG changes.
Sex & Stats: Where Numbers Come to Bang 