DIRECTORS TO PUSH FOR MINORITY ROLES.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

Hollywood's key directors organization will launch a major push today to convince studio executives to go beyond window dressing in giving jobs to women and ethnic minorities.

``We are seeing steady progress but studios are still moving at a snail's pace,'' said Andrew Levy, a spokesman for the Directors Guild of America. ``We're not looking for quotas but we would like to see more than small steps.''

The DGA is hosting its first ``Summit on Diversity'' at its headquarters in Hollywood to nudge the industry to open more slots for female, African-American and Latino union members. The event, expected to draw 500 people, will include panels, clinics and awards to producer-director Bruce Paltrow (``St. Elsewhere,'' ``The White Shadow'') along with ``ER'' producers John Wells and Chris Chulack.

Executive panelists will include Paramount's John Goldwyn, Sony's Kenneth Lemberger, NBC's Warren Littlefield, 20th Century Fox's Bill Mechanic and CBS' Leslie Moonves. Directors will include Martha Coolidge, Wayne Wang, Penelope Spheeris, Paris Barclay, Kathryn Bigelow, Bill Duke, Jesus Trevino and Luis Valdez.

The 11,000 DGA members saw a 27 percent gain in days worked last year as entertainment production surged. The workload for female DGA members increased 26 percent, 48 percent for Latinos and 69 percent for African-Americans. That meant female DGA members actually saw their share of overall days worked dip to 22.63 percent from 22.76 percent, while African-Americans' share hit 5.2 percent, Latinos reached 2.1 percent and other minorities collectively amounted to 2.4 percent.

Overall, DGA work has declined from 1990 when days worked totaled 218,241, hitting a low of 146,768 in 1995 before rebounding to 186,339 last year.