Geena Davis founded an organization called “See Jane” with this mission statement:
See Jane seeks to engage professionals and parents in a call to dramatically increase the percentages of female characters — and to reduce gender stereotyping — in media made for children 11 and under. See Jane founder, Academy Award winner Geena Davis, says, “By making it common for our youngest children to see everywhere a balance of active and complex male and female characters, girls and boys will grow up to empathize with and care more about each others’ stories.”
The organization has published a new study called “G Movies Give Boys A D: Potraying Males as Dominant, Disconnected and Dangerous” that looked at gender stereotyping in movies pitched at children. The study “reveals how male characters in children’s films are portrayed as significantly more important than females, more likely to be violent, and less likely to be fathers or husbands. Males of color are shown even more negatively.”
See Jane previously released a research report entitled “Where the Girls Aren’t: Gender Disparity Saturates G-Rated Films.” Its macro conclusion was that “in America’s top grossing general audience movies for young children, more than two out of three characters are males and females are far less likely to be central characters driving the storyline….”
