Highlighting Gender Stereotypes in the Media

If you read this weekend's FT, you would have seen that their big front page feature "A Woman's Role" deplored the lack of challenging screen roles for women as well as the disproportionately low numbers of women in film-making jobs and their lower pay.

This was followed by a piece in yesterday's SCMP "Actresses Speak Out On Sexist Industry" which notedthe increasing number of women working in Hollywood speaking out publicly against sexism, aided by a cultural zeitgeist in favour of greater diversity overall.

At The Women's Foundation, we are doing our bit to highlight gender stereotyping in the media - our Gala Dinner on October 29 will feature a keynote by Madeline Di Nonno, CEO of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media - one ofthe world's leading authorities on the topic. And our new documentary She Objects will underpin a media literacy campaign in local secondary schools which will launch next year.

As Geena Davis says: "[Film] has a huge impact on our perceptions and on our social and cultural beliefs and behaviours ... reinforcing negative gender stereotypes with movie audiences of all ages". Her Institute recently conducted a gendered analysis of 122 ‘family’ films and found that only 30% of speaking characters were female and 24% of females (compared to 4% of males) were shown in sexy, tight or alluring attire. Digging deeper, the research showed that of 1,565 content creators, only 7% of directors, 14% of writers, and 20% of producers are female.

We are hugely looking forward to hearing from Madeline at our Gala on October 29 - and yes, a few tables and tickets are still available! Please contact Jessica Boyle at jessica.boyle@twfhk.org to secure a seat. 

12
10
2015

Written by

The Women's Foundation