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Women On Screen and Behind the Scenes
in the 2004-05 Prime-time Season

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

Women comprised 25% 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 2004-05 season. This percentage represents an increase of two percentage points over last season and a recent historical high. Programs airing on UPN employed a significantly higher percentage of behind-the-scenes women (38%) than any other network.

On screen, male characters continued to outnumber female characters, 61% to 39%. However, programs airing on UPN featured a significantly higher percentage of female characters than programs on the other broadcast networks. In the 2004-05 season, girls and women accounted for 52% of all characters appearing on UPN programs. This is the first time in the history of this study that the percentage of female characters featured on programs airing on a broadcast network have achieved numerical parity with the representation of girls and women in the U.S. population.

This year’s study added unscripted programs to its examination of prime-time programming. Thus, 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 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.

Findings/Behind-the-Scenes Representation of Women:

* This study examined 2,419 individuals working behind the scenes on one randomly selected episode of every prime-time drama, situation comedy, and unscripted program airing on the six networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, UPN, WB) during the 2004-05 season.

* Overall, women comprised 25% of all creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors, and directors of photography working on all programs considered. This represents an increase of two percentage points since the 2003-04 season and a recent historical high.

* The representation of behind-the-scenes women in program genres did not vary by gender. In other words, 25% of individuals working behind the scenes on situation comedies and dramas were female and 25% of individuals working on unscripted programs were female.

* On the scripted and unscripted programs analyzed, women fared best as producers (36%), followed by creators (24%), writers (22%), executive producers (20%), editors (16%), directors (13%), and directors of photography (2%) (see Figure 1).

* On unscripted programs, women fared best as producers (37%), followed by creators (35%), executive producers (20%), editors (17%), directors, (11%), writers (0%), and directors of photography (0%) (see Figure 1).

* On scripted programs, women fared best as producers (36%), followed by writers (24%), creators (22%), executive producers (20%), editors and directors (14%), and directors of photography (2%) (see Figure 1).

* For situation comedies and dramas, the percentages of women creators, producers, editors, and directors of photography increased from the 2003-04 to the 2004-05 season, while the percentage of women writers decreased. The percentage of women executive producers remained the same (see Figure 2).

* Programs airing on UPN employed significantly more behind-the-scenes women than any other network. Thirty eight percent (38%) of behind-the-scenes individuals at UPN were women, followed by 26% at CBS, 26% at ABC, 23% at NBC, 22% at WB, and 21% at Fox.

* Women comprised 24% of creators. Seventy five percent (75%) of the programs considered had no women creators.

* Women accounted for 20% of executive producers. Thirty six percent (36%) of the programs considered had no women executive producers.

* Women comprised 36% of producers. Only 8% of the programs considered had no women producers.

* Women accounted for 13% of directors. Eighty nine percent (89%) of the programs considered had no women directors.

* Women comprised 22% of writers. Seventy eight percent (78%) of the programs considered had no women writers.

* Women accounted for 16% of editors. Seventy five percent (75%) of the programs considered had no women editors.

* Women comprised 2% of directors of photography. Ninety eight percent (98%) of the programs considered had no women directors of photography.

Findings/On-Screen Representation of Female Characters:

* This study examined 2,198 characters appearing on one randomly selected episode of every drama, situation comedy, and unscripted program airing on the six broadcast networks during the 2004-05 prime-time season.

* Females accounted for 39% and males 61% of all characters (see Figure 3). This represents a decline of one percentage point from last season. Females comprised 41% and males 59% of major characters.

* Viewers were much more likely to see female characters on programs airing on the newer networks such as UPN (52%) and WB (50%), than on Fox (39%), ABC (39%), NBC (39%), and CBS (37%). In the 2004-05 season, the percentage of female characters on UPN achieved numerical parity with the percentage of girls and women in the U.S. population. This is the first time in the history of this study that this has occurred on a broadcast network.

* Overall, female characters were younger than their male counterparts. Sixty seven percent (67%) of all characters in their 40s and 79% of all characters in their 50s were male. Women 40 and older comprised 12% of all characters. In contrast, men 40 and older accounted for 27% of all characters.

* Female characters were overwhelmingly white (77%), followed by African-Americans (14%), Latinas (4%), and Asians (3)%.

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

* Ninety nine percent (99%) of all prime-time characters were heterosexual, 1% were gay, bisexual, or transgender.

Findings/Relationships Between Women:

* Women working behind the scenes influenced the number of on-screen women. When a program had no women creators, females accounted for 40% of all characters. However, when a program employed at least one woman creator, females comprised 44% of all characters.

* Programs employing at least one women executive producer employed higher percentages of women writers, producers, editors, and directors of photography than programs employing only male executive producers.

→ Figure 1.
Percent of Behind-the-Scenes Women Working on Scripted, Unscripted, and All Programming during the 2004-2005 Season

→ Figure 2.
Historical Comparison of Percentages of Behind-the-Scenes Women Employed on Scripted Prime-Time Programs

NOTE: The sampling strategy for 2004-05, 2003-04, 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 and drama 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.
Comparison of Percentages of Women and Men Employed in Top 250 Films of 2005