A new industry study on gender representation in television finds that the share of women creating shows for streaming platforms fell sharply over the past year, reversing gains made earlier in the decade.
The report, titled “Boxed In,” examined roughly 2,500 television roles and 3,600 crew credits from the 2025-2026 season. It found that the percentage of women creating shows for streaming services dropped from 36 percent in 2024-25 to 24 percent in 2025-26.
That decline erases progress made in recent years. The number of female TV creators had risen from 27 percent in 2023 to 36 percent the following season, according to the study.
“The numbers of women creating shows on both platforms are now lower than they were almost a decade ago in 2017-18,” Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The study, which is based in and focuses on an industry headquartered in California, also tracked the presence of women in major on-screen roles. For streaming shows, women made up 44 percent of major characters in 2025-26, down from 49 percent the prior season. Broadcast television showed a smaller shift, with women in major roles falling from 47 percent to 46 percent.
Researchers also looked at the age breakdown of speaking roles by gender. The study found that most women in speaking roles were in their 20s and 30s, while most men in speaking roles were in their 30s and 40s.
The report notes that this age gap tends to emphasize appearance for female characters while allowing male characters to age into roles associated with authority and public power. The study points to characters played by Kathy Bates on “Matlock” and Jean Smart on “Hacks” as exceptions to that pattern rather than the norm.
California’s entertainment industry, centered in Los Angeles, produces the bulk of the scripted television examined in the study, making the findings a direct measure of hiring and casting practices within the state’s largest cultural export.
