Female representation in Film - Research 1

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/05/female-representation-in-film-is-the-lowest-its-been-in-five-years/


http://www.policymic.com/articles/4439/are-women-in-the-media-only-portrayed-as-sex-icons-statistics-show-a-massive-gender-imbalance-across-industries
The representation of women in film and television also plays a major factor with the status of women. The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that only 5% of movie directors were women in 2011; this is a decrease from the reported 9% of female movie directors in 1998.
The report also shows that women are more likely to work genres such as romantic comedy, documentary, and romantic drama. Women are least likely to work in horror, action, and comedy genres. The report also found that films with only men playing key-behind-the-scenes roles yield comparable box office grosses with films that have comparable budgets and at least one woman in these roles. Kung-Fu Panda 2 set the record for the top-grossing film directed by a woman, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, and made $637.6 million worldwide.

From 2010 to 2011, 25% of women comprised of all professionals in key behind-the-scene roles in entertainment television. Of all fictionalized television characters, females accounted for 41% from 2010 to 2011. Historically, female characters were typically younger than their male counterparts, white and more likely to have an employment status that was undefined. Shows that had at least one female writer or creator had a marginally higher percentage (44%) of female characters opposed to shows with only male writers and creators (40%).
In the 100 top grossing films of 2007, 2008, and 2009, women represented only one-third of speaking characters for all three years. When there was at least one woman involved with directing or writing for a film, there were more female characters on screen. Female characters were more likely to be depicted wearing sexy clothing, partially nude, and referred to as attractive in comparison to male characters. Girls and women from ages 13 to 20 had a 21.5% chance of being referred to as attractive opposed to 13.8% of women aged 21 to 30 years old.

Typically, female characters in film and television were not portrayed in leadership roles and were less likely than male characters to achieve their goals. Amongst the 10 top-grossing films of 2010, three of those films were considered “woman-centric.” Only 19 out of the 100 top-grossing films were given that title.
Although some industry leaders claim films with male protagonists generate more profit, films with female protagonists have proven to be just as profitable as films featuring male protagonists, when controlling for budget. Historically, films with male protagonists have had larger budgets and films with larger budgets generally contribute larger grosses in spite of the sex of the protagonist starring in it.

MissRepresentation.org

http://screencrush.com/women-under-represented-in-film/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/14/women-in-film-underrepresented-hypersexualized-report_n_3273398.html

http://gandt.blogs.brynmawr.edu/web-papers/web-papers-2/its-a-mans-world-the-male-gaze-and-the-film-industry/