Almost no progress made since landmark '11%' study

Seven years of lobbying broadcasters to employ more female sitcom writers has barely shifted the dial when it comes to equality, Chortle can reveal.

Just 11 per cent of sitcoms were written entirely by women – the same headline figure given by the Writers’ Guild Of Great Britain for the number of sitcoms predominantly penned by women in a landmark 2018 report.

Taking into account mixed-gender writers’ rooms where there are more women than men, to bring the figures in line with the Writers’ Guild stats, it rises marginally to 18 per cent.

Data analysed by Dr Kay Stonham, a comedy writer-performer who co-founded the Female Pilot Club to address the gender imbalance, found that of the adult sitcoms airing on British TV last year:

• 3 were created and written by women (11 per cent) 
• 12 were created and written by men (43 per cent)
• 13 were created or written by both men and women (46 per cent) - of which only two were written by women in the majority. 

In total, for main writers in 2024, 42 men were credited (75 per cent) and  14 women.

If ‘additional material’ credits are added,  the figures shirt to 44 men (61 per cent) and 29 women, thanks largely to Victoria Pile’s Piglets and Nida Manzoor’s We Are Lady Parts. Between them the two shows accounted for 13 of the female writing credits. 

The picture looks better across the 26 comedy-dramas broadcast last year. Eight were solely created and written by women, 31 per cent; nine were solely created and written by men, 35 per cent, and nine were created and written by both men and women 35 per cent.

Dr Stonham used the categories the British Comedy Guide ascribed to each programme to compile her figures. For example, Bridget Christie’s The Change is in the comedy-drama list while Kat Sadler’s Such Brave Girls is in the sitcom category.

She said: ‘Despite brilliant and high profile examples of sitcoms written by women, statistics for sitcoms solely created and written by women have not significantly shifted since the WGGB published the 11 per cent figure in 2018.

‘Gender is not the only driver of inequality in the comedy industry, disability, age, sexuality and class can also influence an individual's chances of success.’

She said data on. socio-economic background was not generally collected, adding: ‘It is difficult to see how progress on equity and inclusion can be made if the true nature of the problem cannot be accurately measured. We would urge all broadcasters and production companies to treat collecting data on the social class of both employees and freelancers as an obligation, not an option.’

Further data compiled by comedy director Ruth Pickett looked at the 163 comedy-drama series broadcast between 2022 and 2024.

She found that 61 per cent of sitcom and comedy-drama series were written by white men, 28 per cent by white women, 6 per cent by women of colour and 5 per cent by men of colour.  Only four series out of 163 were solely written by people of colour. 

There was even less diversity among comedy directors, with 73 per cent of series directed by white men, 20 per cent by white women, 4.5 per cent by women of colour and 2.5 per cent by men of colour. 

Women fared more equitably as producers, with 49 per cent representation across all broadcasters. However the numbers for producers of colour were more stark: 4.6 per cent women of colour, 0.6 per cent men of colour.

Pickett said: ‘I started this research earlier this year as a proactive, positive project, with the aim of educating myself on who was making what across the comedy industry. 

‘As I progressed, I became more and more disheartened, as the same tiny pool of white male director names came up over and over again – and I began to realise how shockingly low female representation for directors within comedy is.

‘There are so many talented, hard-working female and POC writers and directors out there – but sometimes it can feel like we're banging our fist against a closed door. I'm a huge fan of so much of the work that gets made and it's heartbreaking to feel like you're not being given a fair shot in an industry you love.

She also broke down the figures by broadcaster, finding – for example – that 82 per cent of BBC series were directed by white men and 67 per cent were written by white men.

The big international streaming services performed better – and actually achieved a majority of shows written by women (54.5 per cent) compared to men.

» Click for her charts breaking down by broadcaster and production company.

Producer Gina Lyons of Gobby Girl Productions, which aims to champion underrepresented voices, said: ‘I believe a root cause of the continuing inequality in comedy is the tendency of broadcasters to favour a small number of production companies owned or run by individuals from a narrow section of society, mostly male, white, university educated and middle class.

‘The issue is deeper than just the commissioned writer. The role of the producer is sometimes given to the woman, which has complexities of its own; for example, the "mum" role of a production. But as Ruth’s findings point out, the director is then often a male. A "safe pair of hands".’

Published: 1 Sep 2025