Majority Report

The WGA has released employment findings:

The number of jobs for women, minority and older TV writers took a nose dive last year, according to a new study by the Writers Guild of America, West. “Women and minorities have actually lost ground as compared to their white male counterparts,” the study found, “both in terms of overall staff positions and in higher-level executive producer ranks.”

Minority writers saw a nearly 7% decline in employment last season, falling screenwriting from 15.6% of the workforce in 2011-12 to 13.7% in 2013-14, while employment of female writers fell 5%, from 30.5% to 29%. ...

“Although writers over 40 continued to claim a majority of all staff writer positions,” the report found, “data from the most recent TV season show that their employment prospects drop dramatically after age 50. Such stark statistics continue to illustrate that the entertainment industry remains a glaringly unlevel playing field.”...

Funny thing. Employment of women writers went up in 2011-2012. I guess it's like a roller coaster, up and down. Because eight years back, it was much the same thing.

In point of fact, the WGA has a higher representation of women than TAG does. For years and years, the membership for women in the Guild has hovered in the 17%-20% range.