University of Southern California Report Examines Status of Women in the Entertainment Industry

A new report from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California finds that women are vastly underrepresented in many areas of the entertainment industry.

The report examines 109 major films and 305 television programs in 2014 that included more than 11,000 speaking characters. Only 33.5 percent of all speaking characters in these films and television programs were women. Women were 15 percent of all directors and only 3.4 percent of all film directors. Women were 29 percent of all writers and only 10.8 percent of all writers of major films.

Here are some other interesting facts in the report relating to gender:

• For characters over 40 years of age, women were only 25 percent of all characters and only 21 percent of all characters in films.
• More than 34 percent of women characters were shown in “sexy attire,” compared to 7.6 percent of male characters.
• More than a third of women characters were shown with some level of nudity compared to 10.8 percent of male characters.

Stacy L. Smith, associate professor of communication and lead author of the report, states that “this is no more mere diversity problem. This is an inclusion crisis.” Dr. Smith joined the faculty at the University of Southern California in 2003. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The full report, Inclusion or Invisibility? Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity in Entertainment, may be downloaded by clicking here.