Women's role in TV dramatically reduced

The number of females both in front of and behind the cameras in Hollywood has dramatically reduced during the 2010-11 television season, indicating that their roles cross the board have been reduced, a report which was published on Tuesday said. The writers took the heaviest toll, as only 15 percent of writing jobs for prime time show on major channels including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW were occupied by women, compared with 29 percent in the 2009-10 season, the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University said in its latest study on the subject. In terms of direction, one of the most important occupation in the trade, women accounted for 11 percent in comparison to 16 percent in the previous season, according to "Boxed In: Employment of Behind-the-Scenes and OnScreen Women in the 2010-11." Other behind-the-camera jobs also suffered a tumble in numbers. Program creators fell to 18 percent from 21 percent, so did producers, who suffered a 37 percent from 39 percent. The study suggested that the lack of women behind the camera could also be contributing to the lowered number of females in front of the camera."Programs with at least one woman creator or writer featured more female characters than programs with no women creators or writers," it said. The onscreen job also saw a shrink in numbers. The on-air characters recorded an all-time high, which dropped from 43 percent to 41 percent during the season. All in all, women comprised 25 percent of all individuals working as creators, directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and directors of photography on broadcast television programs during the same period, which represents a decline of two percentage points, the study found. The researchers have conducted the study since 1995-96 by surveying one random episode aired by each network series in a season.