"Kids need to see entertainment where females are valued as much as males" - Geena Davis
Wouldn't it be great to have males and females be portrayed equally in film and television? It seems impossible sometimes but, is it really? Media is a way to reach out to many people of all kinds of race, gender, class level and age. This still does not change the fact that females are portrayed differently than men and it affects everyone, starting with young kids. How are future generations supposed to change the present if women are still part of the minority group in all aspects.
Geena Davis, an Academy Award winning actress, founded this institute in 2004. After watching TV with her young daughter she realized the lack of female lead roles in film and television. Her main goal is to change female portrayal in children's media and entertainment and change how girls and women are reflected in media. This institute wants to pin-point gender inequalities. She began this with See Jane which is a program that is part of her institute. This program was a research project on gender in film and television, which was the largest research project ever be set in motion. In this research, she learned that in family films, there is a one to three ratio between female and male characters and only 17% of characters are female in a group scene.
The institute is the only one in the media and entertainment industry which focuses on research for gender equality, wanting to create a larger variety of female characters and reducing stereotypes. These research projects ARE making a difference. The results of these projects are in high demand by organizations that support wanting to empower women along with young girls. It is considered a leader on gender in media and has had some effects at "major networks, studios, production companies, guilds and agencies". "In a survey following the December 2010 Second Symposium on Gender in Media, more than 90% of attendees stated that the information they learned will influence how they perceive gender balance and stereotypes in their work, and 98% will share and utilize our research findings with their peers and in their companies". Now this may not seem that important, but the fact that people are willing to use this information to make a change in the way women are portrayed in film and television will make a difference, it just won't be immediate.
The different programs used to try and make a difference with this gender inequality issues are a few. Besides the See Jane research project, they have the Guess Who video series where young girls of ages six to nine are informed about gender stereotypes. They have partnered with the Sarasota Film Festival to add media training for high school and college filmmakers. The digital newsletter SmartBrief updates on different breaking news, trends, research and insights on gender in media world wide. The institute also created the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media Focus on Diversity and Gender Equality Award Scholarship after partnering with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences College Television Awards. The Geena Davis Institute's partners include The Advocates of Human Rights, California Commission on the Status of Women, Girls Inc, The White House, Women in Film and Women's Media Center to just name a few.
In an article published in 2006 in Ms. Magazine, A Girl's Own Story, where they wrote about her project See Jane and Davis begins by saying, well wishing, that while she was walking the red carpet a little girl tugged at her dress and told her that seeing her movie where she was the first female president made her want to be president one day. How different would it be if the United States was run by a woman instead of a man?
Post 4 sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8YKe5EGBqY
http://www.thegeenadavisinstitute.org/index.php
http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2006/girlsstory.asp
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