No gender balance in European TV fiction until 2046

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 13/03/2025

The share of women working with European TV fiction has increased since 2015, but only by a modest 4% and the gender gap is still impressive. Overall, the share of women in all roles increased from 23% in 2015-2018 to 27% in 2019-2023). With the present speed of improvement, gender parity in producing European TV fiction will be reached in 2046, data from the European Audiovisual Observatory shows.

“By way of illustration, applying the average growth rates of female presence over the last nine years would mean that gender equality would be reached in 2030 for producers, 2035 for directors, 2036 for writers, 2063 for composers and 2103 for cinematographers. Gender equality for female editors would not be achieved at all at the current rate.” 

However, the Observatory shows some optimism:

“There is a more encouraging aspect that may help to achieve gender parity sooner. Women in one role are more likely to work with other women; for example, the share of women writers or producers is significantly higher when the director is a woman, and the same applies to works written or produced mainly by women. Progress in one role is therefore likely to have a positive impact on the others.” 

Between 2019 and 2023, the share of female professionals was higher for producers (43%) and writers (37%), close to the average for editors (31%) and directors (27%) and significantly lower for composers 10% and cinematographers (10%).

Some progress has been made in the role of director with 8% more women between 2015-2018 and 2019-2023). Progress has been slower concerning other professional roles, the Observatory report says.

Roles with an already very low share of women, such as composers (+4%) and cinematographers (+3%), improved slightly. 

Roles with an above-average share of women, such as scriptwriters and producers, were also slow to change (+4% each). 

The share of female editors stagnated completely (+0%) between 2015-2018 and 2019-2023.

“Female professionals seem to be more represented when several professionals work together in one role, as is the case for producer and writing teams. Conversely, women tend to be more under-represented when the role is generally held by a single professional (e.g. directors or cinematographers).”

“However, even for roles where multiple professionals are responsible for writing or producing a work, teams are overwhelmingly led by male professionals. For example, between 2019 and 2023, while female writers accounted for 37% of the writing of audiovisual fiction, female-led teams accounted for only 26% of all writing teams, compared to 59% for male-led teams and 15% for gender-balanced teams.”