It has been a strong year for women in television, but only in some aspects. According to the Center for Study of Women in Television and Film the annual study, women make up 26% of all creators, directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and directors of photography, which is up one point from the previous year and five points from the 1997-98 season. But 68% of all shows don’t even have a female writer on staff.

The study, written by the center’s head Dr. Martha Lauzen, looks at individuals working on prime-time dramas, sitcoms and reality shows on ABC, CBS, CW, Fox and NBC. It compares those employment figures with figures from the 1997-98 season. In the last year we have seen a major shift in television to more female-driven shows, especially comedic ones. Comedies that have debuted in the last year include New Girl, Girls, Suburgatory. All of these shows were created by and focus on women. Plus, we are looking forward to new shows such as The Mindy Project, co-created by Mindy Kaling as well as Emily Owens MD and Nashville premiering in the next few weeks. Shonda Rhimes also added to her television empire with Scandal (which is the first major network show to have an African American woman in 38 years.) But clearly we are still behind with getting women in the writing rooms. For every Lena Dunham and Tina Fey, there are…I can’t do fancy math…but there are just a lot more male writers.

Last year  Jezebel wrote an article that addressed the issue of the lack of female writers in the world of late-night comedy shows. Chelsea Handler had the most with five female writers (and five male writers) followed by Saturday Night Live with four female writers out of a staff of 16. Then the numbers get really sad: Jon Stewart has two out of 13, Jimmy Fallon has two out of 15, Jimmy Kimmel has one out of  10 (and she is also his girlfriend),  Craig Feguson has one out of 10 (and she is his sister), Conan O’Brien has one out of 15, Stephen Colbert has one out of 16, Jay Leno has one out of 20 and Bill Maher has no women on his staff of nine writers. The Late Show With David Letterman made history in July 2011 when it hired Jena Friedman as its second female writer. It was the first time in the history of the show that two female writers were ever on the payroll.

“It’s harder; there are less women looking for work. It’s easier to have an all-white male writing staff,” said Dan Harmon, the creator and former showrunner of the NBC sitcom Community. He was challenged to hire women for half of the writing staff of the show when it started in 2009 by then-NBC Entertainment president Angela Bromstad and he succeeded.

AOLTV writer Maureen Ryan takes spoke with a wide variety of writers and creators, both male and female on this topic. Everyone seems to agree that gender diversity leads to better television. As one female writer told Ryan, “A balanced writers’ room is like a balanced world. Everyone thrives, good work gets done, people like each other and the show is better for it. Women keep the room moving. They’re great at multitasking and getting along with others. They don’t procrastinate and they open up with lots of personal anecdotes that make for great stories on the show and great character beats. They tend to smell good.”

ontraceptive use in Spain during the first sexual encounter is similar to other European countries, a new study has revealed. Spanish researchers have analysed the prevalence of contraceptive use during the first sexual encounter over the last month in 5,141 sexually active women between

 the ages of 15 and 49 years through Spain's 17 autonomous communities.
“Bearing in mind the individual factors amongst women that determine contraceptive use, living in one autonomous community or another also has an influence,” Dolores Ruiz Munoz, researcher at the Public Health Agency of Barcelona and lead author of the study, said.
In this case, contraceptive use shows positive correlation in women with a university education and negative correlation amongst women from poor backgrounds.
Ruiz Munoz points out that “contraceptive use during the first sexual encounter was more common amongst non-religious women in developed countries who had high educational attainment and their first sexual experience was between the ages of 18 and 19 years.”
Furthermore, the prevalence of contraceptive use during the four weeks prior to the interview stood at 77.2 percent. Percentages varied from 70.9 percent in Navarra to 86.7 percent in Asturias, which suggested less difference between the different regions that in the case of the first sexual encounter.
The use of contraceptives during sexual relations in the month before the study was more common amongst younger women, those who live alone, those with higher educational attainment, those with children and those that had used contraceptives during their first sexual encounter.
“There are many factors that influence the correlation between the region and women at an intermediate level. These factors which influence the context must be taken into account to ensure all women throughout Spain have equal access to contraceptives regardless of their socio-economic level or the area where they live,” Munoz said.
According to experts, contraceptives are the most effective way of preventing unplanned pregnancy and their use is widespread in Spain. Nonetheless, there are still some inequalities in their use.
In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of considering the social, economic and political characteristics of regions when designing administrative measures and promotion methods for contraceptive use.