EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Boxed In: Women On Screen and Behind the Scenes in the 2005-06 Prime-time Season

Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, Professor, School of Communication, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, 619.594.6301

Copyright © 2006 --All rights reserved

Women comprised 24% of all creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors, and directors of photography working on situation comedies, dramas, and unscripted programs airing on the broadcast networks during the 2005-06 season. This percentage represents a decrease of one percentage point from last season.

On screen, male characters continued to outnumber female characters, 60% to 40%. In addition, female characters continue to be younger than their male counterparts. For example, 69% of all characters in their 40s and 75% of all characters in their 50s were male. Women 40 and older comprised 10% of all characters. In contrast, men 40 and older accounted for 22% of all characters.

This summary reports employment figures for women working behind the scenes and on screen on one randomly selected episode of every prime-time drama, situation comedy, and unscripted program airing on the six broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, UPN, WB). The following summary also offers historical comparisons of scripted programs airing 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.

♦ This study examined 2,362 individuals working behind the scenes on one randomly selected episode of every prime-time drama, situation comedy, and unscripted program airing on the six broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, UPN, WB) during the 2005-06 season.

♦ Overall, women comprised 24% of all creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors, and directors of photography working on the programs considered. This represents a decrease of one percentage point from the 2004-05 season.

♦ The representation of behind-the-scenes women did not vary significantly by program genre. In other words, 24% of individuals working behind the scenes on situation comedies and dramas were female and 22% of individuals working on unscripted programs were female.

♦ On the scripted and unscripted programs analyzed, women fared best as producers (33%), followed by writers (28%), creators (20%), executive producers (20%), editors (18%), directors (11%), and directors of photography (3%) (see Figure 1).

♦ On unscripted programs only, women fared best as producers (35%), followed by editors (20%), executive producers (15%), creators (11%), directors (11%), directors of photography (4%), and writers (0%) (see Figure 1).

♦ On scripted programs only, women fared best as producers (33%), followed by writers (29%), creators (21%), executive producers (21%), editors (16%), directors (12%), and directors of photography (3%) (see Figure 1).

♦ On scripted programs only, the percentage of women writers increased substantially from 24% in 2004-05 to 29% in 2005-06. The percentages of executive producers, editors, and directors of photography increased slightly. The percentages of women creators, directors, and producers decreased (see Figure 2).

♦ Programs airing on UPN employed significantly more behind-the-scenes women than any other network. Thirty five percent (35%) of behind-the-scenes individuals at UPN were women, followed by 27% at ABC, 24% at CBS, 20% at NBC, 23% at WB, and 18% at Fox.

♦ Women comprised 20% of creators. Seventy seven percent (77%) of the programs considered had no women creators.

♦ Women accounted for 20% of executive producers. Twenty nine percent (29%) of the programs considered had no women executive producers.

♦ Women comprised 33% of producers. Only 12% of the programs considered had no women producers.

♦ Women accounted for 11% of directors. Eighty nine percent (89%) of the programs considered had no women directors.

♦ Women comprised 28% of writers. Seventy one percent (71%) of the programs considered had no women writers.

♦ Women accounted for 18% of editors. Seventy four percent (74%) of the programs considered had no women editors.

♦ Women comprised 3% of directors of photography. Ninety seven percent (97%) of the programs considered had no women directors of photography.

♦ This study examined 2,112 characters appearing on one randomly selected episode of every drama, situation comedy, and unscripted program airing on the six broadcast networks during the 2005-06 prime-time season.

♦ Females accounted for 40% and males 60% of all characters (see Figure 3). This represents an increase of one percentage point from last season. Females comprised 41% and males 59% of major characters.

♦ Viewers were slightly more likely to see female characters on unscripted programs than on scripted programs. Females accounted for 44% of characters on scripted programs and 40% of characters on unscripted programs.

♦ Programs airing on UPN featured the highest percentage of female characters (48%), followed by WB (45%), ABC (44%), NBC (39%), CBS (38%), and Fox (35%).

♦ Overall, female characters were significantly younger than their male counterparts. Sixty nine percent (69%) of all characters in their 40s and 75% of all characters in their 50s were male. Women 40 and older comprised 10% of all characters. In contrast, men 40 and older accounted for 22% of all characters.

♦ Female characters were overwhelmingly white (75%), followed by African-Americans (15%), Latinas (4%), and Asians (3%).

♦ Female characters were significantly more likely than male characters to be identified by their marital status.

Figure 1.

Percent of Behind-the-Scenes Women Working on Scripted, Unscripted, and All

Programming during the 2005-2006 Season Figure 2.

Historical Comparison of Percentages of Behind-the-Scenes Women Employed on Scripted Prime-Time Programs

NOTE: The sampling strategy for 2005-06, 2004-05, and 2001-02 differed slightly from that used in 1997-98. The figures for the most recent three seasons reflect a sample including one randomly chosen episode of every situation comedy, drama, and unscripted program aired on the six broadcast networks. The figures for the earliest 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 on Scripted

Prime-Time Programs

NOTE: The sampling strategy for 2005-06, 2004-05, 2003-04, and 2000-01 differed slightly from that used during 1995-96. The figures for latest four seasons reflect a sample including one randomly chosen episode of every situation comedy, drama, and unscripted program aired on the six broadcast networks. The figures for the earliest season reflects a sample including one randomly chosen episode of every situation comedy, drama, and animated series ranking among the top 100 programs in their respective seasons.