Women the world over face stark disparities in health, finance, education, politics, and other arenas. Persistent gender inequality may threaten economic growth and/or social progress. At the most micro level, discrimination impedes girls and women from achieving their individual hopes and dreams. Through its Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations has championed an increase in equality for women and girls across different sectors by 2015. Despite a push to promote females worldwide, one example of where progress remains stagnant is the U.S. film industry. Research reveals that the percentage of female speaking characters in top-grossing movies has not meaningfully changed in roughly a half of a century.

Further, women are often stereotyped and sexualized when they are depicted in popular content. Occupationally, our previous research shows that few women hold positions of power and importance on screen. While Hollywood is quick to capitalize on new audiences and opportunities abroad, the industry is slow to progress in creating compelling and complex roles for females. Is this tendency to under- and misrepresent women an American phenomenon, or does gender imbalance occur on a worldwide scale? 

Read the whole research by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti, and Dr. Katherine Pieper, with assistance from Yu-Ting Liu & Christine Song -here-