WMC Reports

WMC 2020 Investigation: Gender & Non-Acting Primetime Emmy Nominations

WMC 2020 Emmy report cover

LITTLE PROGRESS FOR WOMEN IN NON-ACTING PRIMETIME EMMY NOMINATIONS

Calls for Inclusion, Representation, and Equality Behind the Scenes

The good news for Primetime Emmy hopefuls is that the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards have ushered in a new era of a larger playing field, as categories can now have up to eight nominations each, up from five. The bad news for women is that this bigger pool of nominations hasn’t made much of a difference in bringing overall gender parity to the nominations in non-acting categories.

Of the 2,286 people nominated for non-acting Primetime Emmys in 2020, 801 (35%) are women, while 1,485 (65%) are men. That’s a small percentage increase for women compared to 2019, when the 2,383 non-acting Primetime Emmy nominees consisted of 763 (32%) women, 1,617 (68%) men, and three (0.13%) who identify as non binary. Some categories have seen progress in female representation, but most categories have not.

In front of the camera, it looks like progress has been made for women in television because out of the top 10 shows with the most Primetime Emmy nominations this year, the majority have a female-focused storyline. Behind the scenes is another story.

“When it comes to those powerful, behind-the-scenes roles for producing, directing, writing, and editing, progress for women took two steps forward and one step backward,” said Julie Burton, president and CEO of the Women’s Media Center. “Award nominations are often the springboard to better opportunities. Until women and people of color achieve equal status in employment behind the scenes, it is difficult to imagine these nominations representing anything near gender and race equality, nor truly reflecting the diversity of enormous talent we know exists.”

Press release: Little Progress for Women in Non-Acting Primetime Emmy Nominations



More articles by Category: Arts and culture, Media
More articles by Tag: Emmys, Television, Diversity
Sign up for our Newsletter

Learn more about topics like these by signing up for Women’s Media Center’s newsletter.