We're all about the many badass female characters in HBO's Game of Thrones, but apparently female writers are not receiving the same representation on the show. A recent Vanity Fair article concluded that in seven seasons of the series, only four episodes have been written by women. As Refinery29 reports, if that trend continues, by the time the seventh season is complete, a depressing 5.9 percent of all episodes will have been written by women.
For a show that revolves around women in power, the serious lack of representation for women writers is nothing short of disappointing. Game of Thrones is all about female empowerment, but is the message as clear if women aren't given the chance to contribute to it?
Jane Espenson and Vanessa Taylor wrote the aforementioned four episodes, all of which are part of the earlier seasons of GoT. Espenson co-wrote Season 1's "A Golden Crown." Taylor wrote the second season's "Garden of Bones" and "The Old Gods and the New” as well as Season 3's "Dark Wings, Dark Words.” We don't yet know if Season 7 will bring a much-needed change to this significant imbalance.
Portrayals of women on-screen will only be strengthened if more women are working behind the scenes. In the future, I hope the presence of women on Game of Thrones extends into the writer's room.