Women are making historic gains in Hollywood, accounting for 36% of creators of television programs on streaming in the 2024-2025 season.
According to a report from “Boxed In” on women representation in television, that figure is an all-time high for women TV creators, up from 27% in 2023-2024. On broadcast TV, women constituted 20% of creators, a number that remained stagnant from last year. Considering both broadcast and streaming platforms, women made up 27% of creators in 2024-2025, a 4% uptick from the prior year.
Plus, 32% of directors working on streaming programs were women, up from 23% in 2023-2024. Only 18% of directors on broadcast programs this year were women. In fact, women took on more behind-the-scenes roles in streaming versus broadcast across the board, including writers (34% streaming, 27% broadcast), editors (33% streaming, 17% broadcast) and directors of photography (10% streaming, 3% broadcast).
The study found that programs with at least one woman creator employed dramatically higher numbers of women directors, writers and editors than programs with exclusively male creators. On shows with at least one female creator, women constituted 42% of directors, 62% of writers and 32% of editors. On programs with exclusively male creators, women accounted for 20% of directors, 20% of writers and 20% of editors.
This TV season, the percentage of major female characters also increased, rising in streaming from 44% in 2023-24 to 49% in 2024-25, and in broadcast from 45% to 47%.
Written by Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, the “Boxed In” project claims to provide the longest-running historical record of women’s employment in television.