Creative Diversity Network (CDN), the industry body leading the work to increase diversity on and off-screen in UK television, has published its sixth annual report analyzing data gathered through its Diamond diversity monitoring system. “Diamond: The Sixth Cut” reveals multiple areas of continuing concern for the industry, particularly in off-screen and senior roles.
First of all, the report revealed that women are making fewer contributions than they were four years ago, with the decline driven by a reduction in senior roles, where the number of female writers and directors remains very low. Disabled people and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic minority individuals are still under-represented in all senior roles and craft roles generally remain very segregated.
With the exception of Commissioning Editor, people who identify as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic are under-represented in all senior roles compared to population estimates (13%), and in particular, Series Producer (5.5%) and Head of Production (7.4%). Moreover, South Asian representation off screen at all levels has fallen to 2.4%, less than half the UK population figure (4.9%).
Men remain dominant in most senior roles – in particular the important roles of Director (74.5%) and Writer (67.3%). The number of women in senior roles has dropped again over the past year, from 46.8 to 45.4%, continuing a decline from 50.4% in 2018-19. The sharpest decline in female contributions coincided with the pandemic and the first lockdown. The representation of males in senior roles has remained relatively stable during this period, suggesting that men were less likely to be leaving the workforce during the pandemic, and that women have failed to return to senior roles, the report noted.
Furthermore, according to the “Diamond: The Sixth Cut,” the number of disabled people in senior roles remains very low, and at a similar level to four years ago, and the overall proportion of on-screen contributions made by disabled people has not increased over this time. At the same time, television remains younger skewing, with over-50s under-represented both on-screen (27%) and off-screen (21.9%), well below the UK population (36%) and workforce (31%) estimates.
Nevertheless, during the period there has been progress in some areas, such as a rise in off-screen contributions made by disabled people, the over 50s and people who identify as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. Contributions by people who identify as transgender have also doubled over the last three years.
“Six years of Diamond reporting and analysis highlights stubborn areas across the industry, particularly in senior roles. It is clear that despite the initiatives that our members and the wider industry have put in place, there still remains a lot of work to be done to tackle systemic inequality across the sector,” commented Deborah Williams, Executive Director at CDN.