According to a study commissioned by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, stereotypes of women in media have a negative impact. The first-ever global study on female characters in popular films, released today, illustrates deep-seated discrimination and pervasive stereotyping of women and girls by the international film industry.
The investigation analyzed popular films in the most profitable markets, including United States, Russia, Japan, China, Brazil and India, amongst others.
The results showed a significant lack of females in family-friendly films.
- Those who are in movies are often shown in sexual and non-professional roles.
- Male characters disproportionately held more powerful occupations than their female counterparts.
- Only 14% of business executives were female and just 10% of top-level politicians were women.
- Only a quarter of the films examined had a girl or woman as a lead or co-lead driving the plot.
If movies showed more women in executive positions, or pursuing careers in science or math, “then it looks normal to people,” said organization Founder and veteran actress Geena Davis.
“We can start to feel like, ‘Hey, that makes perfect sense that women would be good at that,’” she adds. “So it can have an enormous impact.”
Here, Davis details more findings.
Source: Report | Image: Shutterstock