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Want to Write a Guest Post for Women and ...2011 Hollywood Writers Report - Women Make Up 24% of All Writers
The 2011 Hollywood Writers Report published by the Writers Guild of America, West was released yesterday, and the report, entitled Recession and Regression shows little progress for female writers.
Here's the overview from the report
The present report underscores just how precarious gains on the diversity front have been in the Hollywood industry. As the nation grappled with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the few hopeful signs for women and minority writers discussed in the previous report either disappeared or seemed considerably less encouraging by 2009. For women writers, this meant a decline in overall employment share – which left women underrepresented by factors of nearly 2 to 1 in film and 3 to 1 in television -- and a widening of the gender earnings gap in the television sector.
The statistics are for the years 2008 and 2009. Here's the deal:
• Overall, female writers make up 24%.
• In TV, female writers make up 28%
• In film, female writers make up 17% of film writers.
• The overall earning gender gap increased. Women earned $98,600 compared to $108,000 for white males.
Digging a little deeper:
The gender earnings gap in film decreased mainly because guys made much less money since fewer films went into production during the period of the report. Women's earnings went from $57,428 to $62,500, and for men it was $76,517 down from $97,719 from the previous report.
As for race, TV is very white. Only 10% of the writing jobs go to people of color. It has been in that ballpark for the last 6 years. And it is even worse on films where only 5% of the films are written by people of color. In film, writers aged 71-80 made the most money; and in TV writers aged between 41 and 50 earned the most.
There is so much work to be done on this issue. Remember this is all writers in the guild -- writers who work on indie films and studio films. These statistics show how few women's voices are making it into our lives.
Full report here.
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3 Comments
cj | September 18, 2011 9:34 AM
Hollywood sucks.
Arlene Bowman | May 20, 2011 12:58 PM
Found this article about 2011 Hollywood Writers Report - Women Make Up 24% of All Writers very interesting. I would like to know more in depth about the Native American or Indigenous women writers in film,tv, etc. Has that count been done. Like to know. These statistics tell me, alone it is difficult for women who are not Indigenous and need to make a living at it if she can. I thought that by 86 when I graduated from UCLA film school as Dine' grad film student that things might improve in Hollywood film-tv mainstream. It has in a small way, especially for women, but not a lot. Even when I lived there it was hard to make a living in film-tv. I know a descent written story is important and the heart of the whole production. Since I am an Indigenous filmmaker, Dine' I am concerned and want to know how to improve the ways for the Indigenous people, especially for women. Thank you.
Linn D. | May 19, 2011 5:27 AM
Melissa, I find one sentence a little confusing: "In film writers 71-80 made the most money and in TV writers between 41 and 50 earned the most." Is that the age of writers? If so, it's interesting to note because you hear a lot about age-ism. Or is this income from residuals, products from 10-20 years ago which are still generating a lot of money?... The perception is you're over the hill at 40, writing career wise. But if the above sentence is about age, then maybe that's a myth. Just like "women don't go to the movies" and "women do not buy tickets." :)