Inequality in the Entertainment Industry

It has long been said that the entertainment industry suffers from gender inequality, from award shows to pay gaps. Interestingly, women are responsible for consuming more cultural media than men, and have a higher enrolment rate in university courses relating to the arts, this begs the question of why is there still such a discrepancy in their representation?

Film

The Academy Awards, better known as The Oscars, are one of the most prestigious awards any individual in film can hope to receive. Founded in 1929, The Academy Awards are now in their 94th year, yet are far behind in terms of gender equality. As of 2020, nominations given to females made up only 14% of the awards history (Levitt et al, 2020). 

However, the 94th Academy Awards in 2022 saw an improved representation in women being nominated or winning, which is a step in the right direction. Jane Campion won best director, making her the 3rd female ever to win this award, and making it the second year in a row this award was won by a woman (Cain, 2022). Additionally, at just 20 years old, Billie Eilish was awarded best original song, and a queer woman of colour, Ariana DeBose, won best supporting actress. While these are to name just a few, these significant wins for women in the film industry were overshadowed by an act of male violence (Cain, 2022). Social media was flooded with videos and reactions of that moment, and less so of supporting the female creatives who were honoured that night. While this is not necessarily an act of gender inequality, it is still a brilliant example of how much work still needs to be done to ensure females are recognised in this setting.

Music 

Established in 1959, The Grammys are another of the major American entertainment awards, which also suffers from a gender bias. Between 2013 and 2018, only 9.3% of nominations have gone to female artists (Grow, 2018). The Grammys have also been criticised for their treatment of female performers. In 2018 Lorde, who was nominated for Album of the Year, was not offered a solo performance when the other male nominees were. The following year in 2019, Ariana Grande refused to perform after producers did not allow her to perform her chosen songs (Grow, 2018). In the UK, the 40th Brit Awards in 2020 also suffered from a disregard of women, with one nomination out of 25 in mixed-gender categories going to a woman, and one to a non-binary artist (Snapes, 2020). For 2022, the Brit Awards removed their gendered categories to be as inclusive as possible. As a result, 18 nominations went to female artists, the most seen for over a decade at these awards (Beaumont-Thomas, 2021). 

It is not only in awards that the music industry fails to recognise female artists, but at festivals as well. Despite many of the world’s most successful artists being female, there is still a disparity in the genders being represented at festivals, with women making up only 20% of festival line-ups on average (Macbeth, 2016). This was extremely noticeable at Reading and Leeds 2020, where only 20 female artists were featured across all six stages (Macbeth, 2016).

Books

Males have dominated the literary world for decades, with many genres still being dominated by male authors, such as sci-fi, suspense and adventure. For the past 70 years, between 50-80% of books featured on the New York Times best sellers list have been written by males (Cima, 2020). Interestingly, since the 1990s, female authors have have chosen to write under male pseudonyms for many reasons, including to be published without prejudice in a male-centric world. Additionally, there is a perception that when the author is male, the book is equally accessible to both men and women, but when the author is female that it is predominantly for a female audience. The likes of the Bronte sisters and Louisa May Alcott all used pseudonyms to publish their well-known works, recently even JK Rowling has written under a pseudonym to widen the audience reading her books. 

To conclude, there is not a lack of female artists in any of these fields, nor are they any less talented than their male counterparts. The fact is simply that it is more difficult for women to succeed in a society where male-dominance has been the precedent and continues to prevail.