Women See Slight Increase in Non-Acting Primetime Emmy Nominations - Landscape Looks Bleak for Gender Parity as Men Maintain Dominance

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Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — While women made very slight progress in non-acting Primetime Emmy nominations in 2024, men by far remain the majority of nominees and therefore will win most of the awards at this week’s ceremony, according to a Women’s Media Center report released today.

Women received 34% (863) of the behind-the-scenes nominations and men received 66% (1,694), compared to 33% (828) and 67% (1,665) respectively in 2023, according to the most recent analysis.

In the four major non-acting fields — producing, directing, writing, and editing — 33% of nominees are women, 67% are men, and less than 1% are nonbinary. These percentages are the same as those for 2023.

Three of those four fields had decreases in female representation. Writing is the only field that showed improvement over the previous year, with an increase of seven percentage points.

In 11 categories for the 2024 Emmy Awards, there are no women nominated at all. Women are being snubbed the most in the areas of cinematography, music, sound mixing, and stunt coordination.

“The road ahead does not look very encouraging for women in these significant, career-shaping roles,” said Julie Burton, President and CEO of the Women’s Media Center. “Women deserve an equal shot at winning these coveted awards that often determine who has access to power, status, and opportunity in Hollywood.”

In producing, women are 38% of the nominees and men are 62% in 2024, compared to 39% and 61% respectively last year. Of the four major categories, the directing and editing fields have the lowest percentages for women in 2024. The number of women director nominees decreased: 11%, compared to 13% for 2023. The percentage of nominated female editors also diminished, with women comprising 27% of editing nominees, compared to 31% for the 2023 Awards. Men were 89% of director nominees and 73% of nominees in editing.

The report found that the landscape is looking very bleak for progress in female representation in non-acting categories, as there are very few women showrunners for programs that have received the most nominations.

It also indicates that TV shows that have women as the main protagonists are the shows with the largest percentages of women who get Primetime Emmy nominations as producers, directors, writers, and editors. Emmy-nominated men who are producers, directors, writers, and editors work on a wide variety of shows with protagonists of all genders.

“We will see more gender equality in non-acting nominations once women are afforded the same prospects as men,” said WMC Co-Founder Jane Fonda. “The solution is simple: Hire more women in decision-making roles.”

The report evaluated the nominations of 2,561 people in 102 non-acting categories. While some 44% of the total categories (excluding new categories) showed improved representation for women, most of these gains were small; very few categories saw large increases for women. Female representation decreased or remained stagnant in the majority of categories.

WMC Chair Janet Dewart Bell said that going forward, it can’t be business as usual for the Primetime Emmys. “The entertainment industry must remove the barriers to women’s success if we are to see real, lasting progress,” she said.

The 76th annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be telecast live on ABC on September 15, and will be available for streaming on Hulu on September 16. The companion Creative Arts Emmy Awards will be presented on September 7 and September 8. The two-part Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony will be streamed live on Emmys.com. FXX will televise highlights of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 14. The Primetime Emmy Awards and Creative Arts Emmy Awards both will take place at the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live in Los Angeles.

The Women’s Media Center, co-founded by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem, is an inclusive feminist organization that works to raise the visibility, viability, and decision-making power of women and girls in media to ensure that their stories get told and their voices are heard. We do this by researching media through the WMC Media Lab; creating and modeling original online and on-air journalism; training women and girls to be effective in media; and promoting women experts in all fields through WMC SheSource.

WMC online and on-air journalism channels include the award-winning podcast and radio show Women’s Media Center Live with Robin Morgan, WMC Features, WMC Women Under Siege, WMC FBomb, WMC IDAR/E, WMC Climate, and WMC Speech Project.

Full report: Click here