Gender Inequality Rife At The Oscars

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman took home the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director at the 87th Academy Awards lastnight. Today, most people will be discussing the evening's winners but some other important points need to be mentioned, most notably the lack of gender and racial equality among those nominated. Host Neil Patrick Harris alluded to this with a joke to kick the night off: "Tonight we honour Hollywood's best and whitest - I mean brightest".

According to research conducted by the Telegraph, 102 of lastnight's nominees were men with an average age of 51 while just 25 women with an average age of 41 received nominations. The gender gap was also rather prominent in Academy voting - 77 percent were male. Gender inequality is widespread across Hollywood.

A lack of racial diversity was also readily apparent. No non-white actors were nominated across the four acting categories and out of 127 nominees in total, 118 were white and 9 were non-white. 94 percent of those voting in the Academy were white and 7 percent were non-white.