Representation Is at Stake in Television Writers Strike

This month, some of the most highly rated shows on television are ending their 2022-2023 broadcast season. The TV season concludes as Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers are walking picket lines in a nearly monthlong strike against major television and movie studios to fight for fairer pay, working conditions, and advancement opportunities in a changing media environment, in which writers’ pay and studio profits are vastly unequal.

Audiences have a stake in the outcome of the strike, not just because we want to see what happens next to our favorite characters, but because who tells the stories we see matters.

Since last fall, viewers have been treated to some particularly strong storylines prominently featuring complex female characters, especially women of color. Some of the most diverse creative and writing teams in broadcast television created memorably authentic and relatable stories this season, with richly textured characters and storylines. They reflect one key aspect of the lived experiences of many viewers — and one we are focused on at the Better Life Lab at New America — the struggle to manage work, family, gender bias, and barriers to care and caregiving.

For example, Grey’s Anatomy fans saw a season finale in which a beloved Black woman doctor we’ve known for two decades, Dr. Miranda Bailey (played by Chandra Wilson), received an award for her dedication to providing — and training new doctors to provide — abortion care, often at a high personal cost and threat to her own health and safety. Throughout its entire 19th season, Grey’s has included character-driven storylines that have shone a light on the consequences for health providers and patients after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the toll on patients’ and doctors’ mental health, and the challenges that working parents and caregivers face managing jobs and loved ones at a time when reproductive rights have been eviscerated in many parts of the country.

On the same night as the fictional Dr. Bailey won her award on Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19 viewers ended Season 6 with a Latina pregnant worker, Nanette (played by Paulina Alvarez), serving guests at the Firefighters’ Ball, and explaining to one of the firefighters that — despite back pain in the late stages of her pregnancy and the slip-and-fall risks as a banquet server — she needed to continue working to pay her bills. Station 19 is centered on opportunities and challenges for women in nontraditional occupational roles as firefighters. Its storylines and dialogue vigorously defend women characters as rightful full and equal participants in workplaces, and nudge male characters to be better allies.

For all of season 2, viewers of Abbott Elementary (created by Black producer and actress Quinta Brunson) have seen characters managing work and family demands. Stories have included the grand dame of teaching at Abbott Elementary, Barbara (played by Sheryl Lee Ralph), who commented that her attention at work suffered because of her husband’s health issue; Abbott’s ingenue teacher Janine (played by Brunson), who had to manage financial issues and boundaries with her mother; and stressed-out parents who need time off work to attend school meetings. Last season, we learned that Ava, the school’s principal (played by Janelle James), is a caregiver to her grandmother — something she felt the need initially to hide from her colleagues when she claimed she was taking vacation time during a period of transition in her grandmother’s care needs.

These stories reflect circumstances that millions of people face every day. Women are primary caregivers in most families and they carry most of the mental load; men, and especially younger men, struggle with the desire to care for loved ones and the stereotypes and norms that hold them back. Most parents and family caregivers work and manage competing work and family caregiving obligations. Occupational stereotypes continue to create public perceptions in the U.S. about jobs that are “natural” for women versus men. And women, particularly women of color, are disproportionately concentrated in lower-wage jobs, are paid lower wages, and face more workplace stress.

In film, the relationship between identities of people behind the scenes and in front of the camera is one element that contributes to authentic and inclusive representation. It is reasonable to think that women writers and writers from diverse backgrounds are more likely to write relatable characters and stories on television, too, in part because they are more likely to be in families and communities where the pull between work and family caregiving is strong, the challenges of lower-wage jobs are common, and the pain of harmful stereotypes and bias is all too familiar.

So what can audiences expect when the WGA strike resolves and writers begin to work again? This is the question audiences should ask, and why they have a stake in the outcome of the WGA strike.

Writers are striking over declining base and residual pay, fewer and shorter jobs, and fewer professional development opportunities to be on set during a shoot. As the 19th News reported, the writers’ “fight for better pay and consistency on the job is one that could define what pathways — if any — remain for writers who can’t afford to go months without pay and also can’t afford smaller residual checks. Women, women of color, and LGBTQ+ people have the least access to writing jobs, and the financial precarity of the work could mean they have to leave the industry altogether.” Male writers of color are underrepresented in the writing industry and face financial precarity too.

The progress Hollywood has made in recent years in behind-the-scenes and on-screen representation could be reversed if the strike is settled unfavorably for writers. In 2020, women were 45% of TV series’ writers; people of color were 37%, women of color were 21%, and men of color were just 15%, according to the Writers Guild West’s 2022 Inclusion and Equity Report. These shares were all substantial improvements from a decade ago. But the distribution across all levels of seniority is skewed, with women and both women and men of color concentrated in lower-level jobs and underrepresented at the highest levels of production as executive producers and showrunners. And even when writers rooms are reflective of a variety of identities and lived experiences, writers from underrepresented backgrounds often face personal and professional barriers and bias on the job, according to the Geena Davis Institute and the Think Tank for Equity and Inclusion. Lower-level writers also report resistance with respect to storytelling on controversial topics like abortion, according to researchers at the University of California at San Francisco.

Studios should welcome and incentivize inclusive production and diverse teams. For them, revenue is left on the table when productions do not feature authentic and inclusive storytelling. This means ensuring writers of all backgrounds can enter and stay in the industry.

And audiences should demand it too. For viewers, authentic representation can lead to empowerment and a sense of belonging, especially among underrepresented groups. Inclusive content also builds deeper understandings for viewers from majority backgrounds and identities. And when storytelling shows the forces that shape characters’ lives, decisions, and opportunities — like references to low wages, cultural expectations around gender and work, and barriers to work and care — it can start to change mindsets and create a broader will to demand change.

If we want to see more Dr. Baileys, more Janines, and more characters we can relate to because their lives reflect the humor, drama, and suspense in our own — and if we want to see new possibilities for a more inclusive and thriving country that honors our realities and tries to address our hardships — it’s time we tune into what’s happening in Hollywood. Writers — and all of us — deserve fair pay, fair treatment, and dignity.