Study puts spotlight on inequality in film

Women had less than a third of speaking parts in the most popular films from 2007 to 2014, according to a new study that gives further evidence of persistent inequality in Hollywood, on-screen and off. Across all three positions, men outnumber women behind the camera at a rate of 5.3 to 1. For instance, in 2014 there have been 21 movies with a feminine lead or co-lead however none of these roles have been for characters 45 years of age or older. In June of this year, Boxer praised Warner Brothers for their recent hires of females for some of their upcoming big movies, Variety reported. Only 3 of the leads or co-leads were played by underrepresented female actors.

Behind the camera, a shockingly low 11% of writers were women.

· More than 40 of 2014’s top 100 grossing movies had no speaking characters of Asian descent.

Looking at the report, New York Times critic Manhole Dargis writes in regards to lack of women in movies: “Among other things, the findings are a blunt reminder that female-driven blockbusters like “The Hunger Games” and African-American dramas like “Selma” remain exceptions in a largely homogeneous field”. More than a quarter of women showed some nudity versus just 9% of men.

It remains to be seen, however, if this is simply empty rhetoric and 2015 will be just as imbalanced for women in the movies as previous years.

“I feel like we now have a map, a picture, of what we’ve been calling the epidemic of invisibility on-screen”, said Stacy L. Smith, a professor at USC and director of the Media, Diversity initiative.

The latter batch of findings is significant, according to the USC study, because the films made by diverse content creators tend to reflect greater onscreen diversity.

Indeed, the picture is even grimmer for people of color.

Moreover, only 28 women worked as directors on the 700 top films from 2007 to 2014, the study said. There were no transgender characters in the 100 top-grossing films of 2014.

LGBT filmmakers were found to feature more women, people of colour, and LGBT characters in their work. Out of 4,610 speaking or named characters across the 100 top grossing films of 2014, only 19 were coded as lesbian, gay, or bisexual.

Here’s hoping Hollywood is listening-and reading. Sadly, these figures show it’s not happening just yet.