Women and people of color in New York who work in the entertainment industry may face some discrimination. According to a survey conducted by the Writers Guild of America West, women and people of color have made gains toward parity in film and TV writing, but there is still room for improvement.
In the WGAW’s Inclusion Report, which was released on June 5, women had 44% of TV writing jobs during the 2019-2020 season although they are 51% of the population. People of color, who make up 40% of the population, had 35% of the jobs. People of color had 18% of showrunner jobs, and women had 30% of them. According to the study, over two years, the representation of women and people of color rose 6%. The groups with the lowest amount of representation in TV were Middle Eastern people and native or indigenous people.
The film industry is behind television in representation. Only 19% of writing jobs went to women and people of color in 2019. The study broke results down by studio and found that MGM hired the highest proportion of women writers while Universal Pictures hired the highest proportion of writers of color with 27%. Other studios were not far behind.
Even when people with less representation are hired, they might still face workplace discrimination and harassment. In many cases, this can be difficult to prove. An employer may claim that disciplinary action against an employee or firing the employee is performance-related. People who believe that they are dealing with harassment or discrimination at work may want to consult an attorney to discuss employee rights. The first steps might be to pursue a complaint through the workplace. If the employer does not respond appropriately, the next steps may be legal ones.
