SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
UNITED NATIONS
The first-ever global study on female characters in popular films, launched Tuesday, reveals deep-seated discrimination and pervasive stereotyping of women and girls by the international film industry.
‘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,’ actress Geena Davis, Founder and Chair of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, while launching the report.
The study was commissioned by the Institute, with support from UN Women and The Rockefeller Foundation and conducted by Stacy Smith and her research team at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.
The investigation analyses 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, the report said. Less than a quarter of the fictional on-screen workforce is comprised of women (22.5 per cent).  When they are employed, females are largely absent from powerful positions.  Women represent less than 15 per cent of business executives, political figures, or science, technology, engineering, and/or math (STEM) employees.  ‘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,’ Ms. Davis, the actress said. ‘In the time it takes to make a movie, we can change what the future looks like,’ she added noting that media images can have a positive impact on perception.

According to the study, while women represent half of the world’s population, only about 30.9 per cent of all speaking characters are women. Only about 22.5 per cent of the fictional on-screen workforce is comprised of women, and when they are employed, less than 15 per cent of them are portrayed as business executives, political figures, or science, technology, engineering, and/or math (STEM) employees. ‘There are woefully few women CEOs in the world, but there can be lots of them in films,’ Ms. Davis said. ‘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.’