Title: Research Says: Sexism Lives on Screen
Study: The Status of Women in the US Media, 2014 (Women’s Media Center, 2014)
Finding: While women in general are under-represented in movies, radio, TV and digital forms of media, women of color are more dramatically absent and the sports news coverage is the most lacking in female faces.
Note about The Woman Effect Research Index: This study was performed by researchers not affiliated with InPower Women. Our Research Index includes all relevant research to the subject of women, business and power. We do not influence how the research was conducted or reported by the researchers. In our abstracts, we focus on pulling out the most actionable advice for individual women. To suggest additional research we should index, or discuss our choice of abstract focus, please contact us
InPower Insight: The media shows us a stereotype of what it believes (based on business data and public media usage) we believe about ourselves. What we see and what we are are different.
Summary:
This broad-ranging study looks at women’s participation in media-making both behind the camera and in front of it. Consistently, it finds that media remains a man’s business. We’ve captured just a few of the interesting facts here, but the report is chock full of more. Here are some of the highlights.
- Newsroom staffing went down, and women’s participation remained at 36%
- Male newspaper opinion writers outnumber women 4-to-1
- With the exception of MSNBC, white men dominate the Sunday morning (opinion-setting) news shows
- Two women made the top 183 list of top sports newscasters
- In 2012 women had speaking parts 28% of the time in the top 100 films (43% in TV)
- For the top 250 most successful films of 2013, women accounted for 16% of the behind-the-scenes jobs including director, producer, writer, cinematographer and editor.
- There is evidence that black and hispanic women are more often portrayed as negative female stereotypes than white women.
Personal Coaching Tip: Go ahead and enjoy popular culture, but be aware that it’s not showing you the world that you actually live in. Challenge yourself to enjoy media that presents women and diverse faces in a human and honest light. When you find those portrayals, share them with your friends and talk about how people are portrayed with them. Start the discussion of critically consuming media. Find media that you agree with to show your children and tell them why you like it. They may not always like what you like, but they’ll remember your opinion and ultimately it may impact the future.
Category: Participation
Keywords: women, media, women in the media, sexism, sexist, gender diversity
