Race and Hollywood: WGAW Releases Latest Findings of 2014 Hollywood Writers Report

Research Shows Small Gains for Minority, Women, & Older TV Writers, Film Employment for Minority and Women Writers Declines

April 14, 2014 – The Writers Guild of America, West has issued the Executive Summary of its 2014 Hollywood Writers Report, the WGAW’s analysis of the state of diversity in writing for television and film. While the latest report findings show modest gains for minority and women television writers, such increases are offset by a continuing decline in employment for women and minority screenwriters, illustrating the stark reality that the entertainment industry remains an inequitable landscape. The full report will be published in June.

The 2014 Hollywood Writers Report, subtitled “Turning Missed Opportunities Into Realized Ones” and the ninth in a series of semi-annual reports the Guild has commissioned, analyzes employment patterns for writers working on broadcast and cable TV shows during the 2011-2012 season, as well as writers writing for theatrical features during that same period, highlighting three specific groups who have traditionally been underemployed in the entertainment industry: women, minority, and older writers.

“The good news is that, since the last report published in 2011, there appears to have been small gains for women and minorities in television employment and earnings – though both groups still have quite a way to go to reach parity with their white male counterparts. The story for film, unfortunately, is not so good. Since the last report, there has been no progress for either group. Indeed, relative to white males, women and minorities have lost ground in the sector,” said 2014 HWR author Dr. Darnell M. Hunt, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA and professor of sociology.

Hunt’s research shows that while minority and women writers have made incremental gains in employment over the past decade-plus period, current film and TV employment levels remain widely disproportionate to actual minority demographics of the U.S. population, and diverse writers remain substantially underrepresented on TV writing staffs and in feature films.

Key findings in the 2014 Hollywood Writers Report include:

Women Writers’ TV Employment Remains Static

Women TV Writers Close Income Gap

Women Screenwriters Lose Ground in Film

Gender Earnings Gap in Film Widens Again

Minority TV Writers Increase Numbers and Close Earnings Gap

Older Writers’ Share of TV & Film Employment Remains Strong, Drops After 60

To read the 2014 HWR Executive Summary, Click Here.

For background information on the Race and Hollywood Project, Click Here.