Directors Guild of America reports improvement in the hiring of women and ethnic minorities

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Hollywood is getting the message, slowly.

The Directors Guild of America reported “slight” improvements with regards to the number of women and minorities in the TV industry during the 2015-16 season, in a sneak peak of the findings in its upcoming Episodic Television Director Diversity Report.

Women directed 17.1% of episodes, up from 15.8% in the 2014-15 season, and ethnic minorities directed 18.5%, up from 17.7% the previous season.

Interestingly, a lack of diversity seems to be more of a problem at the smaller networks.

“There was a marked difference in hiring patterns between the major networks – which were the clear leaders in diverse hiring – and the basic cable and pay-TV networks,” the DGA said.

“It’s important for us to share hiring data during this critical period,” guild president Paris Barclay said. “As the networks convene in New York to present their fall lineups and court billions in advertising dollars, they’re also deciding on who they’ll hire to direct – to bring these stories to life for an increasingly diverse audience.”

“There’s much work to be done by the networks, studios and producers to repair the broken hiring pipeline they’ve shaped, and then neglected over the years,” he added. “We’ll be providing an in-depth analysis of the entire television season later this summer with a very close eye on new entrants to the pipeline, analyzing who is getting hired for those critical breaks as first-time episodic television directors.”