A new study by the Women’s Media Center has found that there was no overall change in the percentage of women nominated in the 89 non-acting categories for Emmy this year. According to a report in Variety, the combined key categories of writing, directing, editing, and producing has seen just one percentage rise.
Through a statement, Julie Burton, president of WMC, said that women still lag behind men in getting influential behind-the-scenes roles such as producing, direction, editing and writing. Interestingly enough, there are 18 non-acting categories with no female nominees, a troubling sign according to Burton.
“While the slight uptick in some categories is encouraging, women still are nowhere near parity and men continue their dominance. Executives must do better in addressing the disparity of women behind the camera,” she said.
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A number of female producers who also got nominated for projects they starred in, including Reese Witherspoon for Big Little Lies, Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon for Feud, Oprah Winfrey for The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks, means that there is a two percent increase in the number of women nominated in the producing category.
The new category — Music Supervision — added some women to the mix while comic actor Samantha Bee was nominated in late-night comedy (usually a male domain) with nods for Full Frontal With Samantha Bee.
These low numbers are unacceptable to Burton and the WMC as they do not take into account or represent “the tremendous talent, experience, and impact of female writers, producers, editors, and directors.”