Duh: Women in Hollywood Power Positions Hire More Women

Women in Hollywood power-positions definitively hire more women than men in the same positions. It’s something we could derive empirically or even intuit, but now there’s more quantifiable evidence, via an annual report from San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, TV shows run by at least one woman have an average of 50 percent women on its writing teams, compared to 15 percent of shows run by men exclusively. Additionally:

“The findings suggest that creators and executive producers play an instrumental role in shifting the gender dynamics for both on-screen characters and other individuals working in powerful behind-the-scenes roles,” said Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the center and author of the study.

In 2014-15, females accounted for 42 percent of all speaking characters and 27 percent of creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors, and directors of photography working on prime-time broadcast programs. Lauzen said that when compared with figures from recent years, these percentages reveal that women’s forward progress in television has stalled. “There is a perception gap between how people think women are faring in television, both on screen and behind the scenes, and their actual employment. We are no longer experiencing the incremental growth we saw in the late 1990s and 2000s.”

So not only are women marginalized still in 2015, but we’re actually going backwards in the realm of entertainment, in case that was unclear. But don’t worry though, it’s chill! Hey ladies, relax, change is gonna come, just you wait.