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Meghan McHenry
Dimensions of Culture & Society
December 4, 2012
Gender Roles in Media
Although women make up 51% of the country they comprise only 17% of
Congress. At this rate women may not receive equality for 500 years. Women are also
extremely underrepresented in media. When women are represented they are usually
viewed as sex objects or secondary characters. This is sending the wrong message to both
young men and women.
When women are only represented in the media as “eye candy” that sends a
message to young girls that appearance is everything. This creates an unrealistic body
image, which leads girls to feel badly about themselves, causing them to have depression,
eating disorders, self-harm problems, etc.
In children’s media girls are outnumbered three to one by boys. Girls all around
the world are watching an average of seven hours of television a day. If girls are
represented they are usually the same type of character: few career options, little or no
opinion, and lack of ambition. Young women and girls need to be shown a healthy image
of women in the media. To show successful women, and teach girls that it’s not just boys
who can dream big.
Developing minds have a hard time distinguishing fantasy from reality; children
often take what they see in books, movies, and television to be fact. Research found that
children between eight and nine years old find characters, situations, and storylines in
Saturday morning cartoons to be realistic. Taking this into consideration, entertainment
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producers need to be more cautious about what messages they are sending to their
influential audiences.
Within the superhero genre of children’s cartoons portrayed concerning gender
stereotypes. Male superheroes outnumber their female counterparts at least two to one.
Female superheroes are presented as slimmer, wearing more revealing clothing, having
more human-like features, and are portrayed more often as a team member than a leader.
Male superheroes are portrayed as more muscular, wearing more modest clothing, and
are either the leader of a team or act alone more often than female superheroes.
Outside of the superhero genre, women and girls still face stereotypes. Female
characters have interpersonal roles that involve romance, family, and friends. While male
characters are more likely to enact work-related roles. Programs with one or more women
writers and creators are more likely to feature both female and male characters in
interpersonal roles whereas programs with all male writers and creators are more likely to
feature both female and male characters in work roles. Furthermore, marriage, home,
family, and romance are important aspects of the way characters are portrayed and tend
to be more developed in female characters than in male characters. There needs to be a
realistic balance; not all women are mothers, but all mothers are women.
The longer an individual views television, the more he or she is presented
television’s view of reality, over time the individual’s view of social reality may begin to
mirror the version of reality portrayed on television. Children need to be shown gender
equality, and balanced representation, in order for girls to have equal opportunity to have
support for and in turn achieve their dreams.
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Though there is some variety in today’s programming research has still found the
content to both reinforce and challenge gender stereotypes. Without the proper media
representation society can never hope to gain gender equality. Educating children on
gender roles and the equal opportunities they all have a right to, must be the first step.
Show empowered female characters alongside accepting male characters. Men must also
standup against sexism if we wish to create gender equality.
There are U.S. organizations fighting for gender equality within the media,
organizations such as, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and Miss
Representation. However, Western European countries have the greatest gender equality.
According to the annual Gender Gap Report, the United States has made improvements
in gender equality.
The 2011 documentary Miss Representation written and directed by Jennifer
Siebel Newsom exposes how mainstream media contributes to the under-representation
of women in positions of power and influence in America. While women have gained
influence over the past few decades, the United States is still ranked 94th in the world for
women in national legislatures. Outside of the film, the website MissRepresentation.org
was created as a call-to-action campaign that seeks to empower females to challenge
limiting labels, to achieve their potential and encourage males to stand up to sexism.
Taking action with Miss Representation as of now 175,000 people have pledged
to make a difference, by creating awareness about media sexism in hopes of bringing
about gender equality. Through the use of social media women and girls are telling their
stories and advocating change, while men and boys are standing up to sexism. Schools
are adopting the Miss Representation curriculum in order to educate students about media
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literacy.
The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media is another U.S. base organization
created to fight against gender stereotyping and underrepresentation in the media. Actress
and advocate, Geena Davis founded the organization in 2004. The institute and its
programming arm, See Jane, are leading the fight against gender stereotypes in children’s
media and entertainment. The institute’s mission is to alter how girls and women are
reflected in the media.
The institute is the only research-based organization working within the media
and entertainment industry to engage, educate, and influence the need for gender balance.
This process of advocacy has allowed the institute to lead media and entertainment
companies, organizations, educational institutions and multinational companies such as
the United Nations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center,
and the Wall Street Journal Women in the Economy Task Force.
Making a difference, the biennial Geena Davis Institute Symposium on Gender in
Media convenes over three hundred entertainment industry decision makers, thought
leaders, and content creators to work toward gender equality in children’s media. After
the 2010 symposium a survey found that more than 90% of attendees stated that the
information they learned would influence how they perceive gender balance and
stereotypes in their work, and 98% would share and utilize the institute’s research
findings with their companies.
The U.S. is not the only country to have gender bias in the media Great Britain
faces similar problems. An article was published to BBC News Magazine’s website in
2012 highlighting the five ways women are highlighted in the press. First they are
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depicted as sex objects, the article found that in many cases there is no difference
between pornography and some of the pictures shown in tabloids. There is also a large
focus on the relationship status of women in the media, the WAG or wife and girlfriend
mentality. Women are celebrated for whom they are dating rather than what they do.
Passive roles are also established for women in the media, there is a tendency
across all media, for women to disproportionately appear in passive roles; instead of
leaders. Relative invisibility is another issue within the media, looking at a month of
national newspapers it was found that men wrote three quarters of all front-page articles
and 84% of those mentioned or quoted in lead pieces were male. Too fat/thin/old/young
within the media and entertainment industry women’s appearance is regarded more
highly than her achievements.
One advocate for European gender equality is the Gender Institute. Established in
1993, it is the largest research and teaching unit of its kind in Europe. The Gender
Institute is interested in mapping and intervening in gender equality, the institute is the
only gender center globally that combines theory and practice with such an
interdisciplinary and transnational scope. The work of the institute addresses the tenacity
of gender power relations and gendered inequalities in a period of global transformation.
The research of the institute can be divided into four themes. Bodies and
sexualities; addresses the relationship between gender and sexuality with an emphasis on
local and transnational spaces. Gender and social policy, using a gendered perspective,
research in this theme documents social, economic and political change, and critically
analyses individual, family, and policy responses. Globalization, development and
inequalities, research in this theme focuses on gendered relations, rights, citizenship and
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social justice and resilience and change in work, security, migration, and poverty.
Representation, narrative and culture, this theme brings colleagues together to work on
gendered representation in film, literature, and theory.
Global Girl Media is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering high
school age girls from under-served communities around the world through media,
leadership, and journalistic training to have a voice in global media. The organization
was created out of a coalition of women broadcasters and journalists from around the
world who recognized that much of mainstream reporting focuses on violence,
celebrities, and disasters, while the voices of young women are ignored.
Global Girl Media seeks to address the digital divide between girls of
impoverished communities and media sources. By supplying the equipment, education,
and support necessary young women are able to become digital and blog journalists.
Bringing their own perspective of local and global events to the global web and social
media community. The belief of Global Girl Media is that by working with young
women around the world to find and share their voices is an investment in our global
future.
With organizations such as the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, the
goal of gender equality within media and entertainment is in sight. Advocates must gain
attention; with the help of films such as Miss Representation people are learning about
the underrepresentation and disrespect of powerful women within U.S. media.
Global Girl Media is helping the U.S. and global populations become informed about
women empowerment and representation. Better role models need to be in the minds of
young girls; politicians, businesswomen, leaders, etc.
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The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) grades countries five ways: economic
participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political
empowerment. Countries are scored between 0.0 for the most unequal; women have zero
access, or 1.0; women have full access to equal opportunities.
The 2012 report ranks the United States 22nd in the world on the scale of gender
equality. The only non-Western nations to rank higher than the U.S. were South Africa,
Cuba, Lesotho, Nicaragua, and the Philippines. The U.S. is ranked a better place for
women compared to Europe as a whole.
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Works Cited
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"Five Things About Women in the Press." Editorial. BBC News Magazine 3 Dec.
2012: 1-6. BBC. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine20554942>.
Fisher, Max. "The U.S. Is Catching up to Europe on Gender Equality." Editorial.
The Washington Post. N.p., 25 Oct. 2012. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.
"The Gender Institute." London School of Economics and Political Science, 2012.
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"Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media." Geena Davis Institute on Gender in
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