Gender in Hollywood Film Crews

The gender representation of Hollywood film crews (2009-13), broken down by department, creative role and genre.

The gender representation of Hollywood film crews (2009-13), broken down by department, creative role and genre.

The report on gender within film crews from 1994 to 2013 reveals that women made up only 22.6% of crew members on the 2,000 highest-grossing films, with a slight decrease to 21.8% in 2013. The Camera and Electrical departments were the most male-dominated, with only 5% women, while the Make-up, Casting, and Costume departments had the highest female representation. Key creative roles such as directors and composers were overwhelmingly male, with less than 2% of directors and only one female composer in the top 100 films of 2013.

Over the past 20 years, the overall percentage of female crew members has remained relatively stagnant. However, there have been shifts in the roles women occupy. Women have become more prominent in departments such as Make-up, Art, and Costume, but their representation has decreased in technical areas like editing and animation. The report also highlights a decline in female representation in the key roles of writer, producer, and director during this period.

The report also explores the gender split by film genre, revealing that musicals and music-based films had the highest proportion of women in their crews, while sci-fi and action films had the lowest. Despite these disparities, the overall gender balance in the film industry has changed little over the past two decades, and women remain significantly underrepresented in key creative positions across the board.