Gender (Mis)Representation in the Media

“Freedom of expression and information is also a fundamental right of our democracies. The right balance therefore needs to be found between the fundamental right to equality of women and men, the breaking of gender stereotypes in the media and the fundamental right to freedom of information, freedom of expression in the media, diversity of opinion and media pluralism.”
– Advisory Committee on Equal Oppurtunities for Women and Men

Gender equality is, among others, an important quality of a modern civilized society. For the last years, there have been outspoken voices calling into question wether our society can actually claim this trait for itself, citing stark discrepancies between the perceived societal self-image of gender equality and the reality of latent sexism many women still encounter on a daily basis (Lantagne, 2014). One example of this is the media, which is wide-spread in the many parts of the Western world today (Stelter, 2011). The prevalence of televisions in homes as well as screens, billboards and multiple other types of advertisements in public areas result in the media playing a large role in shaping gender stereotypes. The discussion over gender representation in the media has long heard calls for more equality, demanding accurate female characters in movies and shows, more women in positions such as news anchors and journalists, as well as an accurate representation of the gender distribution.

Women make up more than 50% of the world’s population today. The WMC’s research into 20 of the most read, viewed and listened to news sources showed that the on-camera appearances of men accounted for 63.4%, leaving the women at 36.1%. These female journalists were most likely to report on issues such a lifestyle, culture and health, their male colleagues would cover topics like politics, technology or crime. NBC/CBS have rates of 7%/5% of female journalists (WMC, 2014).

TV shows and movies don’t fare much better, either. A U.N.-backed study, conducted in 11 countries by the Geena Davis Institute, found that on average only 17% of people in crowd scenes are female, while women comprised about 31% of speaking or named characters (Smith et al., 2014). Even the countries with the highest rates, U.K (37.9%), Brazil (37.1%) and Korea (35.9%), women are still a great deal away from accurate representation. The lowest rates were U.S./U.K. hybrid films (23.6%) and Indian movies (24.9%).

Prestigious or powerful positions are overwhelmingly played by men, misrepresenting an already uneven balance to even greater extremes. Sexualization of female actors is on the rise globally, with teen actors (13-20) now being just as likely (32.5%) to be shown revealing, naked, or referenced as attractive, as adult female actors, and four times as likely as a male actor. On the production side, women made up 20.5% of the filmmakers, 22.7% of the producers, 19.7% of the writers and only 7% of the directors. However, films directed by women had much higher rate of female characters, up to 44.6%. Taking into account that women have made up more than 50% of the moviegoers for the past 9 years (Silverstein, 2014), the picture these numbers paint make for a grim outlook onto the future of the business.

But there are some indicators that this issue may already be on the verge of changing. For instance, channels like PBS now have more than 90% of their news read by female anchors, and ABC almost 60% (Smith et al., 2014). Another piece of information is even more surprising, and the ramifications it could have on the gender bias in Hollywood could be enormous. The Bechdel Test, created by Alison Bechdel in a 1985 comic strip called The Rule, from the series Dykes to Watch Out For, aims to judge a movie’s gender-bias based on three criteria: It has to contain at least two women (1), who talk to each other (2), about something else than men (3).

An analysis of 1615 films released between 1990 and 2013 using the Bechdel Test (Hickey, 2014) showed more movies passing the test now than in 1970, but also that the level has remained almost unchanged for nearly two decades, at slightly over 50% of the sample. Another noteworthy result was that the median budget for movies that passed the test was 35% less than it was for movies that did not pass. Not only that, but the numbers also seem to contradict the persistent belief that making movies for and with men always makes more money. Movies that passed returned a median of 2.68$ for every dollar spent, while movies that failed returned 2.45$. “Movies that are female-driven do not travel”, as Krista Smith, Editor of West Coast Vanity fair put it, also doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Internationally, the movies whose median gross return fell most were those in which the women only talk about men, while movies passing the test performed just as well as movies that failed for other reasons. Movies like Twilight, The Hunger Games, Divergent or Frozen, which feature strong female leads, have been amonst the most successful films of the last few years.

There even seems to be an awareness in the political realm for the necessity of change. The European Council published an opinion paper which contains a detailed history of the legislative developments and discusses different steps to promote gender equalityin the media (Adv. Committee, 2013). The UNESCO’s Director-General noted that “too often still, the media reflects and sustains discriminatory attitudes to gender, failing to represent the voices of women or to report on such crucial concerns as gender-based discrimination, including violence against women.” (Grizzle, 2013) She also cited that women still had relatively little decision-making power inside media organizations.

At the Global Forum on Media and Gender, held in Bangkok in 2013, she promoted an alliance to deal with these issues more effectively. Apart from the positive developments that seem to be occuring more or less on their own, and the commendable efforts being made by some politically and socially important individuals and groups, women still face an uphill battle for equality and autonomy in many areas of the world and their lives. Although encrusted fabric of many patriachal systems and institutions is slowly crumbling und the constant struggle for recognition and respect, the system is still far from changed.

A first step would be to implement some or all of the suggestions made by the Global Forum on Media and Gender, taking a strong stance as an exemplary group of nations. Other countries seeking political models for reforms would thereby be encouraged to adapt such positions. A film studio dedicated to giving female directors, screenwriters, producers and actors the oppurtunity to show their genius and inspire others, as well as try to further prove the competitiveness of such productions, might also be a useful tool. But first and foremost, there must be a change in the collective attitude of western society towards the role of women. This topic is often met with hostility and defensiveness, and not only by men, who for various reasons find the idea of change to the current system dangerous to their own gender indentity. These fears are the most serious barrier to a fundamental progress in eliminating gender bias, as they often guide the decisions of people. This makes it difficult for women to achieve equality even through the democratic process. There is still much work to be done.

“Imbalanced access to information, media and technology, under-representation, insufficient media coverage, the prevalence of stereotypical media content and information regarding gender, as well as violence against women journalists –we are working to tackle all of these obstacles to the equal enjoyment of freedom of expression.” – Irina Bokova

Literature:

Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men: Opinion on “Breaking gender stereotypes in the media”, 2013. Web. March 15th 2015
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/opinions_advisory_committee/2010_12_opinion_on_breaking_gender_stereotypes_in_the_media_en.pdf

Bokova, Irina: Web-Message for the launch of the Global Forum on Media and Gender. UNESCO, 2013. Web. March 15th 2015 http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/images/events/Global_Forum_on_Gender_and_Media_2013/gfmg_bangkok_dg_message_en.pdf

Grizzle, Alton: UNESCO’s Director General calls for greater female representation in the media. UNESCO, 2013. Web. March 15th 2015
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/news-and-in-focus-articles/all-news/news/unescos_director_general_calls_for_greater_female_representation_in_the_media/#.VQXIFizT_Vg

Hickey, Walt: The Dollar-And-Cents Case Against Hollywood’s Exclusion of Women. FiveThirtyEight.com, 2014. Web. March 15th 2015
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-dollar-and-cents-case-against-hollywoods-exclusion-of-women/

Lantagne, Allison: Gender Roles in Media. Huffington Post, 2014. Web. March 15th 2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-lantagne/gender-roles-media_b_5326199.html

Silverstein, Melissa: MPAA Data Shows That Women Are Still The Majority of Moviegoers. Web. March 15th 2015
http://blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood/mpaa-data-shows-that-women-are-still-the-majority-of-moviegoers

Smith, Stacy L; Choueiti, Marc & Pieper, Katherine: Gender Bias Without Borders. Geena Davis Institute, 2014. Web. March 15th 2015
http://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/gender-bias-without-borders-executive-summary.pdf

Stelter, Brian: Ownership of TV Sets Falls in U.S. New York Times, 2011. Web.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/business/media/03television.html?_r=0

Women’s Media Center: WMC’s Research Shines Light on Gender Bias in Major U.S. Broadcast, Print, Online, & Wire Outlets. Web. March 15th 2015
http://www.womensmediacenter.com/press/entry/wmc-research-on-gender-bias-in-major-us-media

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