Marianna Diamos/Los Angeles Times; Brigitte Lacombe; Billy Rose Theatre Division/The New York Public Library; ABC Photo Archives/ABC via GI
Of the 13,871 nominees at the Academy Awards® since 1929, 17.8% were women and 82.2% were men. The ratio of men to women nominees was 5 to 1. Seventeen percent of all winners across the last 97 years were women. Less than 2% of nominees were women of color. The first woman of color was nominated in 1936 (Merle Oberon). Of all Academy Award® winners, women of color were less than 2%. The first woman of color to win any Oscar® did so in 1940 (Hattie McDaniel).
There were a total of 1,418 individual women nominees over the last 98 years, compared to 5,115 individual men. Women were more likely to receive a single nomination than men. More than two-thirds of women (69%) were nominated once versus 59% of men. The majority of women of color earned only one nomination– 87% of women of color received a single Oscar nomination in their careers.
The women with the most nominations were Edith Head (35), Meryl Streep (21), and Diane Warren (17). John Williams (54), Alfred Newman (45), and Cedric Gibbons (39) all had more nominations than the most-nominated woman. The highest number of nominations for any woman of color was 6, received by Chloé Zhao. Over the last 98 years, six women have received at least four nominations: Ruth E. Carter, Penélope Cruz, Viola Davis, Ai-Ling Lee, Yolanda Toussieng, and Chloé Zhao.
Of all Academy Award® winners, less than 2% were women of color.
In 2026, there were 218 Academy Award® nominees. Thirty-three percent were women and 67% were men. At 33%, the share of women nominees in 2026 is tied for the highest on record, matching 2021 when women also accounted for 33% of all nominees. Women of color comprised 12% of all nominees in 2026, the highest percentage of women of color nominees across all 98 years.
33%
of 218 nominees were women
12%
of nominees were women of color
To provide a comprehensive understanding of women’s nominations at the Academy Awards,® the chart below provides information on the number and percentage of nominees by category and by year from the first ceremony to today. While the overall figures regarding women’s nominations remain low, there are categories where women’s presence has increased notably.
Year | Director | Cinematography | Adapted Screenplay | Original Screenplay | Editing | Picture | Animated Film | Production Design | Costume Design | Documentary Feature | Score | Song | Visual Effects | Makeup & Hairstyling | Sound | Casting | Overall | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2025 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2023 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2021 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2019 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2017 |