In case you’ve been in a coma for the past, well, forever, here’s a newsflash: Hollywood has not been a great working environment for women generally!
And a new survey conducted by the Writers’ Guild of America West shows just how not great. 64% of female writers say they’ve been harassed, and the guild stated that “a significant amount of the harassment writers experience occurs in the writers’ room.” Meanwhile only 11% of men reported experiencing harassment. The survey also showed “many more writers have witnessed harassment.”
In a recent communique to members, the guild said survey also found that 11% of male writers said that they too had experienced sexual harassment on the job, and that “many more writers have witnessed harassment.” Responses to the survey, in which about a fifth of the guild’s active members participated, “have given us a sobering, first-person insight into the conditions that make addressing the issue both essential and urgent,” the guild said.
The survey was sent to the guild’s members in February, with WGA leaders saying it would help them “understand how well or badly our employers are doing, or have done in the past, in dealing with complaints.”
In January, the guild issued a Statement of Principles on Sexual Harassment that it said will “form the basis of our policies and actions going forward” and serve “as our starting point toward meaningful change in our industry’s treatment of sexual harassment and discrimination.”
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To further address the issue, the guild said it’s “exploring the possibility of a series of member conversations about standards for a successful writing room. By proscribing sexual and other harassment among writers, these standards would enable all the writers in the room to fully participate, rather than being alienated by treatment no one should have to experience. These conversations would also address situations that arise for screenwriters, MOW writers and series writers in professional meeting settings.”
The guild said the survey responses “are serving the vital purpose of informing and motivating our search for ways to eliminate sexual harassment and assault, and, indeed, harassment of all types, from the professional lives of writers and those who work with them. For those of you who have experienced harassment, but did not share an account, be assured that the many stories we have received represent a broad array of experiences.”
(Excerpt) Read More at: Deadline.com
