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BAFTA Survey Reveals 12% Of Voters Are From Minority Ethnic Groups & 37% Are Women; Awards Body Commits To Improving Representation

Tom Grater
·2 min read

BAFTA has unveiled the results from its most comprehensive membership survey to date.

In total, 37.4% of current members are women, 12.2% are from minority ethnic groups, 5.3% have a disability, and 9.7% identify as LGBTQI+. For the first time in the body’s history, a survey was conducted across the entire global membership and filling it out was compulsory for voters.

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In 2020, BAFTA received criticism for the make-up of its nominations, which featured all-white acting nominees and no female directors. This year, however, was a very different picture, and the organization has rightly received praise for significant changes made to the voting process that have clearly impacted representation across its categories.

The awards body will hope to take this further by committing to improving the diversity of its membership. The org will invite 1,000 new members from under-represented groups over the next two years, and has already reached one-third of this target to date, it said. In the last year, 635 industry professionals have joined BAFTA, 53.3% of which were women, 33.1% from minority ethnic backgrounds, 7.5% identify as disabled, and 13.6% identify as LGBTQI+.

Looking further forward, BAFTA is putting in place targets to achieve a 50-50 gender balance across its membership, as well as having 20% from minority ethnic groups, 12% disabled and 10% LGBTQI+, by 2025.

“BAFTA has set membership targets to reflect our vision for a more inclusive organisation and industry,” commented BAFTA chief exec Amanda Berry. “While there is more work to be done, the demographic of our latest intake of members demonstrates that we are making progress to ensure our membership is more representative of society, and confirms our commitment to address areas of under-representation within our membership.”

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