Gender Bias Without Borders: An Investigation of Female Characters in Popular Films Across 11 Countries

"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." - UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

This global study on female characters in popular films 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 [United Nations] Women and The Rockefeller Foundation and conducted by a research team at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. The team relied on research assistants who hailed primarily from the set of countries examined, which was designed to provide linguistic and cultural sensitivity while retaining systematic and stable application of the research measures. The investigation spans films theatrically released between January 1 2010 and May 1 2013 across: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, United States (US), and the United Kingdom (UK), 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 women (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. Stereotyping also stifles women in prestigious professional posts. Female characters populated professions such as nursing (78-80%) and teaching (52%). In contrast, women are nearly shut out of sports and spiritual professions. Although the Olympics prominently feature female athletes and the Church of England recently allowed female bishops, these portrayals are almost absent in feature films. Male characters outnumber female characters as attorneys and judges (13 to 1), professors (16 to 1), and doctors (5 to 1). For example, only 2 female lawyers (vs. 20 males) were shown across the sample, both of whom appeared in comedic roles. Emi, the protagonist of the Japanese film A Ghost of a Chance, is portrayed as a fumbling attorney who solves her case thanks to the assistance of a male samurai ghost. Similarly, just one female judge appeared in these movies.

On a positive note, cinematic portrayals of the journalism sector featured a higher percentage of females in the workforce, with 40.1% of reporting, anchor, and photojournalism jobs allocated to women. In addition, the only news director depicted was a female. Every territory in the sample but one showed a female journalist. "Given the importance of journalism to an informed and educated constituency, it is heartening to see that fictional females have a role to play in delivering the news to their fellow citizens."

Yet the ratios tipped in the favour of females in general when it came to hypersexualisation. Girls and women were over twice as likely as boys and men to be shown in sexualised attire, with some nudity, or thin.

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 (UK, Brazil, South Korea) feature female characters in 38 – 35.9% of all speaking roles on-screen. UK-US collaborations and Indian films are at the bottom of the pack, clocking in at 23.6% and 24.9% female, respectively. Half of South Korean films featured a female lead or co-lead, as did 40% of the films analysed from China, Japan, and Australia.

Out of a total of 1,452 filmmakers with an identifiable gender, 20.5% were female and 79.5% were male. Women comprised 7% of directors, 19.7% of writers, and 22.7% of producers across the sample. In terms of female directors, the UK (27.3%) and China (16.7%) are significantly higher than the industry norm (7%), whereas France, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the US are significantly lower. When films featured a woman director or writer, the number of female characters on-screen increased significantly. One 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. "Female characters can and should easily fill an equivalent share of the workforce and clout positions across industries simply through the imaginations of their creators. Conceiving of female CEOs [chief executive officers], politicians, lawyers, judges, and doctors is the work of a creative writing moment but could have important and lasting consequences for the next generation."