Global Film Industries Perpetuates Discrimination against Women

Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, UN Women and The Rockefeller Foundation present first-ever international study on gender images in global films/ India performs low on female characters and gender-balanced casts, and high on sexualization of its female characters

Study conducted by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti, & Dr. Katherine Pieper at the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California.

New Delhi - The first-ever global study on female characters in popular films, launched today, reveals deep-seated discrimination and pervasive stereotyping of women and girls by the international film industry. The study was commissioned by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, with support from UN Women and The Rockefeller Foundation and conducted by Dr. Stacy L. Smith and her research team at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. The investigation analyzes popular films across the most profitable countries and territories internationally, including Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, United States, United Kingdom, as well as UK-US collaborations.

While women represent half of the world’s population, less than one third of all speaking characters in film are female. Less than a quarter of the fictional on-screen workforce is comprised of females (22.5%). When they are employed, females are largely absent from powerful positions. Women represent less than 15% of business executives, political figures, or science, technology, engineering, and/or math (STEM) employees.

Of the samples chosen, India did not have a single film with a female lead or co lead role or a gender balanced cast. India also has a high percentage of sexualized female characters. On women shown in sexually revealing clothing, India scores higher than the global average (34.1 percent vs. 24.8 percent), and on women shown with partial nudity, the country stands at 35 percent, compared to the global average of 24.2 percent.

“The fact is – women are seriously under-represented across nearly all sectors of society around the globe, not just on-screen, but for the most part we’re simply not aware of the extent.  And media images exert a powerful influence in creating and perpetuating our unconscious biases”, said Geena Davis, Founder & Chair, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. “However, media images can also have a very positive impact on our perceptions. In the time it takes to make a movie, we can change what the future looks like. There are woefully few women CEOs in the world, but there can be lots of them in films. How do we encourage a lot more girls to pursue science, technology and engineering careers? By casting droves of women in STEM, politics, law and other professions today in movies”, she added.

Stereotyping also stifles women in prestigious professional posts. Male characters outnumber femalevcharacters as attorneys and judges (13 to 1), professors (16 to 1), and doctors (5 to 1).  In contrast, the ratios tipped in the favor of females when it came to hypersexualization. Girls and women were over twice as likely as boys and men to be shown in sexualized attire, with some nudity, or thin. “Females bring more to society than just their appearance,” said Dr. Stacy L. Smith, the principal investigator. “These results illuminate that globally, we have more than a film problem when it comes to valuing girls and women. We have a human problem.”

While the report shows how discriminatory attitudes that affect women and girls are reflected in film worldwide, it also points to some significant differences among countries. The frontrunners (U.K., Brazil, South Korea) feature female characters in 37.9 – 35.9 percent of all speaking roles on screen. UK-US collaborations and Indian films are at the bottom of the pack, clocking in at 23.6 percent and 24.9 percent female respectively. Half of South Korean films featured a female lead or co-lead, as did 40 percent of the films analyzed from China, Japan, and Australia.

“Twenty years ago, 189 governments adopted the Beijing Platform for Action, the international roadmap for gender equality, which called on media to avoid stereotypical and degrading depictions of women. Two decades on, this study is a wake-up call that shows that the global film industry still has a long way to go”, said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. “With their powerful influence on shaping the perceptions of large audiences, the media are a key player for the gender equality agenda. With influence comes responsibility. The industry cannot afford to wait another twenty years to make the right decisions”, she added.

Across the films assessed, women comprised nearly one in four filmmakers behind the camera (directors, writers, producers). Yet when films featured a female director or writer, the number of female characters on screen increased significantly. One obvious remedy to gender disparity on screen is to hire more female filmmakers. Another approach is calling on film executives to have a heightened sensitivity to gender imbalance and stereotyping on screen.

“The evidence is even clearer now that what we see on-screen reflects the off-screen realities of women’s lives all too well,” said Sundaa Bridgett-Jones, Associate Director at The Rockefeller Foundation. “As we look to the future, The Rockefeller Foundation is committed to expanding opportunities for more broadly shared prosperity. For this to happen, we need to move beyond tired stereotypes that constrain women and men from realizing their full human potential.”

Key findings of the study include:

• Only 30.9 percent of all speaking characters are female.
• A few countries are better than the global norm: U.K. (37.9 percent), Brazil (37.1 percent), and
• South Korea (35.9 percent).  However, these percentages fall well below population norms of 50 percent. Two samples fall behind: U.S./U.K. hybrid films (23.6 percent) and Indian films (24.9 percent) show female characters in less than one-quarter of all speaking roles.
• Females are missing in action/adventure films. Just 23 percent of speaking characters in this genre are female.
• Out of a total of 1,452 filmmakers with an identifiable gender, 20.5 percent were female and 79.5 percent were male.  Females comprised 7 percent of directors, 19.7 percent of writers, and 22.7 percent of producers across the sample.
• Films with a female director or female writer attached had significantly more girls and women on screen than did those without a female director or writer attached.
• Sexualization is the standard for female characters globally: girls and women are twice as likely as boys and men to be shown in sexually revealing clothing, partially or fully naked, thin, and five times as likely to be referenced as attractive. Films for younger audiences are less likely to sexualize females than are those films for older audiences.
• Teen females (13-20 years) are just as likely as young adult females (21-39 years) to be sexualized.
• Female characters only comprise 22.5 percent of the global film workforce, whereas male characters form 77.5 percent.
• Leadership positions pull male; only 13.9% of executives and just 9.5% of high-level politicians were women.
• Across notable professions, male characters outnumbered their female counterparts as attorneys and judges (13 to 1), professors (16 to 1), medical practitioners (5 to 1), and in STEM fields (7 to 1).

The full report is available at www.seejane.org

About Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media

Founded by Academy Award®-winning actor Geena Davis, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, at Mt. St. Mary’s College, is the only research-based organization working with media and entertainment companies with cutting-edge research, education, and advocacy programs to dramatically improve how girls and women are reflected in media targeting children 11 and under. For more information visit: www.seejane.org

About USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism

The Media, Diversity, & Social Change (MDSC) Initiative is a leading think tank dedicated to addressing issues of inequality in entertainment. MDSC is part of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. USC Annenberg is a national leader in education and scholarship in the fields of communication, journalism, public diplomacy and public relations. The school and MDSC emphasize leadership, innovation, service and entrepreneurship and draw upon the resources of a networked university located in the media capital of the world. Visit us at: http://annenberg.usc.edu/MDSCI,  Annenberg.usc.edu, and via various social media platforms.