The 2023 On Screen Report from not-for-profit gender equity organization Women in View warns of the fragile state of parity work in Canada’s film and TV sector, revealing a notable slowdown in momentum for women and gender-diverse creatives in 2020 and 2021.

The 111-page report, which was published on Thursday (Aug. 31), states that the share of key creative roles for women and gender-diverse individuals in Canadian film and TV came to 30% in 2020 and 33% in 2021 – a decrease from 43% in 2019. The data covers English-language television and film projects funded by the Canada Media Fund and Telefilm Canada over the two-year period.

According to a news release, this latest report marks the first time Women in View has included documentary projects in its TV data, which saw it track 127 drama series and 107 docuseries for the designated period. For film, the report tracked 653 projects in development and 127 films that went into production.

The report also modified its focus to the “share of projects and investments,” rather than “absolute numbers,” to “provide a more reliable view of year-over-year changes and to draw comparisons across genres.”

In TV, women and gender-diverse individuals accounted for 28% of the share of key creative work in 2020, increasing to 31% in 2021. Notably, the percentage of those employed were 33% in 2020 and 39% in 2021. The report also showed a significant gap between drama and documentary, with the share of creative work coming to 36.8% in drama and 19.2% in documentary.

The report pointed to a reduction in work for women and gender-diverse writers (38% in 2020 and 42% in 2021, down from 57% in 2019), directors (41% in 2020 and 42% in 2021 for English-language drama, down from 50% in 2019), and cinematographers (6% in 2020 and 10% in 2021, down from 17% in 2019). In docuseries, directing work for those groups came to 22% in 2020 and 17% in 2021.

On the film side, the number of projects produced by women and gender-diverse producers fell to 43% in 2020 and 2021, compared to 50% in 2019. Similarly, the amount of funding fell to 42% in both years, compared to 48% in 2019.

However, the report states that writers in those groups retained parity at 51% of writing credits while directors made up 54% of directing credits, with 51% of Telefilm funding being dedicated to those projects during the two-year period.

The report also highlights that Black women are considered to have the least representation in creative roles, and that white women had “between two and ten times the share of work of other women and gender-diverse creatives” in 2020 and 2021.

The loss in momentum is attributed in part to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the report noting that losses in production, development and funding “tended to impact women and non-binary creatives more than men.”

“These findings suggest that the hard-earned progress that began to pick up speed in 2019 is fragile, and that more sustainable infrastructure is required to ensure that parity – and importantly, equity – gains withstand external market pressures,” said Sharon McGowan, chair of Women in View, in a statement.

The full report is available on the Women in View website.

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