UK TV industry sees alarming drop in number of women in leadership roles since pandemic

The proportion of women in leading positions in British television has dropped alarmingly since the pandemic of Covid-19, with women making up only a quarter of screenwriters and a third of directors over the past year.

Based on startling statistics unveiled in the latest report from diversity data monitor Diamond, the Representation of women in leadership positions was shown to have fallen each year for the past four years to 45.4%, with the biggest drop occurring in the main pandemic year, while male representation remained fairly stable. "This suggests that men were less likely to leave the workforce during the pandemic and that women did not return to leadership positions," said the Creative Diversity Network's Sixth Cut report. (CDN) of the United Kingdom. , which publishes Diamond.

At a time when scribes are striking across the United States in pursuit of better conditions, the data showed that less than a third (32.4%) of writers last year were women, with the figure even lower – 25.3% – for directors. In terms of management positions, women were only overrepresented in production manager and commissioning editor positions.

In key genres such as drama and children's films, women have only occupied respectively only 45.1% and 35.6% of roles during the year to July 2022, when the data was submitted.

For the first time there were over a million UK TV contributions to Diamond l last year, with broadcasts on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, UK network Paramount Channel 5, Sky and, for the first time, UKTV, owned by BBC Studios, all included.

Small signs of progress could be seen in other areas.

Last year's report focused on the lack of black, Asian and of ethnic minorities in leadership roles, which improved over the 12 months from 11.4% to 12.2%, while overall off-screen contributions for this group climbed to 13.9% - practically at the level of the national average. However, according to the data, key roles such as writer (8.7%), director (9.5%) and EP (8.7%) were still underrepresented by people from Black, Asian and ethnic backgrounds. ethnic minorities.

Disability representation has remained stubbornly low in leadership positions at 4.7% - well below the national average of around 18%. Onscreen representation dropped disappointingly to 8.2%, but offscreen increased to 6.5%. In terms of gender, people with disabilities were the least represented in drama, at just 5.2%.

"Six years of Diamond reports and analysis shed light on the most stubborn areas of industry, especially in leadership positions." said Deborah Williams, CEO of CDN. "It is clear that despite the initiatives put in place by our members and the wider industry, there is still much work to be done to address systemic inequalities in the sector."

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