The Downward Trend of Women in Media Production

The presence of females in media production has alarmingly decreased.  The articles assigned reveal the drastic decrease in female writers and producers.  The writers also make relatively reasonable causes of the decrease of females in media production; however, I found myself agreeing with one particular cause.  Maureen Ryan’s article, “Why is Television Losing Women Writers? Veteran Producers weigh in”, states that possible cause of a lack of women in media production is the economy.  In general, the number of employees on a writing team is decreasing; however, one producer felt that minorities are being “disproportionately impacted” and are the first to be dismissed.  Unfortunately, it has been determined that women are the minority.  I find it startling that a woman who may be more qualified than a man for a position on a writing staff may not even be considered because in a time of economic crisis minorities are not being hired.  This realization is very sad, and much like many others I began to think that women were having more of a presence behind the scenes. Another statement made was that men are still considered to be the breadwinners in a family, while women only have to provide for themselves.  This is completely inaccurate and it isn’t rare to find a stay at home dad and a successful women working in the professional world. 

            This brings me to where I strongly agree with Ryan’s article.  Ryan states that there are still men in media production who just don’t get it and these are the men that strive to make the female writers uncomfortable in a professional atmosphere and who believe that men cannot discuss inappropriate fart jokes.  There are men who are extremely traditional and who are accustomed to a male dominated industry.  These are the men that prevent young female writers from mentoring opportunities.  I believe until these men “get it” the number of female staff writers will continue to decrease or remain extremely low.  If I was trying to make it as a big Hollywood writer I would find myself becoming extremely frustrated because my career was continuously disrupted by past traditions.  However, this must be true for many careers.