feeling listless

TV I was startled to see Laura Innes name as director on a recent episode of e.r., partly because she's an actor on the show, but on reflection because she's a woman. Watching as much US tv over the years that I have I tend to take note of the credits and it's always rankled with me that we don't see that many non-male names listed as directing. I remember Gates McFadden directed a poor episode of the The Next Generation once, but since then nothing. Someone has noticed:

The study, which examined the hiring practices of the top 40 TV series airing on the Big Four broadcast networks in the 2002-03 season, revealed that for a third consecutive year, Caucasian male directors helmed more than 80% of the episodes of top comedy and drama series airing on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.

"Once again, the producers and networks have failed to fulfill their contractual good-faith obligation to hire more women and minority directors," DGA president Martha Coolidge said. "We are prepared to use all available resources at our disposal to change this unacceptable situation and are exploring all options to ensure that the good-faith effort to increase diversity in hiring practices called for under the (DGA) basic agreement is demonstrated through action, not words."

The statisitcs listed in the article are stunning example of how the white male still holds sway throughout the world, that somehow they're more creative. I hope the situation is more balanced in the UK, but I've a feeling it probably isn't.