It’s Good for Society
When women’s expert and authoritative voices are accurately reflected in the media, and harmful gender stereotypes are left behind, we all benefit. Girls – and boys – grow up in a world where they learn they can participate equally. It is normalized for women to pursue careers, interests and ambitions. Gender bias in schools, workplaces and communities are diminished.
Recent research from Plan International, in partnership with the Geena Davis Institute, investigated the impact that healthy role models, or lack thereof, have on girls. Jacqueline Gallinetti, Director of Research at Plan International, shares some of the results.
Research Shows Stereotyping in the Media limits Girls’ Leadership Potential
By Jacqueline Gallinetti
Director of Research, Plan International
Young women around the world are eager to play a leadership role in their lives – but the stereotypes and lack of role models they see in the media greatly discourage their ambitions.
Two major studies across 19 countries, involving more than 10,000 girls, were undertaken in 2019 by Plan International to better understand what barriers are limiting girl’s empowerment. Through two phases of research, conducted in partnership with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (GDIGM), we asked girls around the world about their perceptions of and ambition towards leadership, and what obstacles they were facing. They had two key things to tell us. First, the majority of the girls indicated they wanted to be a leader in their life. Second, they told us that they felt restrictive gender stereotypes and a lack of role models, in society and in the media, discouraged their ambitions.
Source: Report, Taking the Lead, Plan International
The first study, Taking the Lead (June 2019), aimed at understanding and uncovering girls’ and young women’s perspectives on what leadership means to them; whether they aspire to be leaders and, if so, the enablers and barriers they face in realizing their potential as leaders. The mixed methods research was conducted across 19 countries, involving over 10,000 girls and young women.
One of the methods used was a survey that measured girls and young women’s aspirations for leadership in their careers, in politics, and in the household. Overall, a large majority of respondents (59.3%) say they would like to be a leader in their career or job. This high rate of career leadership aspiration is encouraging for moving more women into leadership positions in the workplace. In contrast, girls and young women have a steep drop-off when it comes to aspiration for political leadership on a national or local level. Only one-in-five girls and young women say they would like to be a leader in their country (20.6%) or their community (19.3%). This means that a major barrier to advancing women’s political leadership is that girls’ and young women are not seeking leadership positions. When it comes to leadership within their family, only 22.5% of girls and young women aspire to this.
To complement the survey, we spoke to girls and young women in five countries in depth (India, South Sudan, Japan, Senegal and Dominican Republic) to understand a bit more about their aspirations. They revealed that they most want to be a particular type of leader – compassionate, dedicated to their community, and listening to the needs of others – but they are not encouraged in their ambitions. They are held back by society’s limited expectations of what is “appropriate” for them as young women and by a leadership model of authority and hierarchy, with which they cannot identify. They feel they are denied the places, spaces, and the role models that would enable them to realize their dreams.
“If the leader has a strong vision it’s a good thing to pursue it. But if you go headlong into it without listening to others, no one could follow such a leader. If a leader wants to get the members to cooperate, she needs to care for and listen to others and take their opinions into consideration before taking action.”
– Girl, aged 15-17, Japan
“Nothing can change the fact of being a leader, and we can become one in several areas; [one] can be a worldwide leader, while a community or family leader leads very few people but they both have the same role and that is to be promoted.”
– Young woman, aged 18-20, Senegal
Source: Internew’s Central Asia program, Kids Crossroads. Photo credit: Internews
The girls and young women said that they are influenced most by their immediate environment, and look to their family members and others, such as the media, as role models and supporters can release them from restrictive stereotyping.
A large majority of girls and young women who were surveyed across the 19 countries (82.9%) say they have women leaders they admire as role models in media. This prompted the second study, Rewrite Her Story (October 2019), which focused on examining this one particular influence that girls and young women are exposed to in their daily lives – the influence of the media in relation to female leadership. There are certainly a multitude of media forms and it would be impossible to examine them all, so this study looked at the top grossing films across 20 countries.
Source: Report, Rewrite Her Story, Plan International
The findings are shocking: overall, the top-grossing films of 2018 reflect the same gender biases that researchers have documented for decades. Male characters in the top-grossing films outnumber female characters two-to-one (67.1% compared to 32.9%). When it comes to speaking time, male characters speak twice as often as female characters in the top-grossing films (66.6% compared to 33.3%). In terms of screen time, male characters appear twice as often as female characters (64.2% compared to 35.7%). Overall, 37.1% of characters in the top-grossing films are portrayed as leaders in their workplace, community, or country and, of these, male characters are more likely to be shown as leaders than female characters (42.1% compared to 26.9%). Finally, unsurprisingly, female leaders are far more likely than male leaders to be shown wearing revealing clothing (30.0% compared to 7.3%), and they are nearly twice as likely to be shown as partially nude than male leaders (15.0% compared to 8.4%).
The study also involved speaking with girls (through a survey, focus group discussions and interviews) about how their aspirations are shaped by the media and whether there are role models in the media who inspire them to be leaders in various aspects of their lives. Most of the girls and young women interviewed recognized that women are underrepresented in entertainment media, across the world and in their context.
“Yeah! Men are in more leadership posts than women. Let me say, even other movies that I watch, it’s very hard to watch a movie saying that the president… is a woman, he’s a man! So, I think men are taking charge”.
— Young Woman, 19, Uganda
“It’s a rarity to find a movie where it’s an all-female cast or mostly female cast, usually the women are just additions and for the most part as a romantic interest. They can easily be taken out of the movie and the movie will do just fine.”
— Girl, 17, Canada.
Importantly, they also called out the lack of diversity on their screens, even when women are included in prominent roles. This particularly centered around ethnicity, with some girls and young women referring to predominantly white casts in leading roles. Others referred to the lack of diversity in terms of social standing and background, with most characters they saw on screens coming from middle-class or privileged backgrounds.
THERE ARE THREE BIG TAKEAWAYS FROM BOTH STUDIES:
Girls and young women want to be leaders. While there are variations across regional and income groupings and individual characteristics, overall girls and young women aspire to lead and are confident in their ability to do so. However, girls are also acutely aware of the difficulties that lie in wait for them should they choose to pursue their ambitions, and that these difficulties are rooted in gender stereotypes and discrimination.
One of the domains where these gender stereotypes play out is in the media industry, despite many efforts from governments, the industry and activists. And not only is media gendered, it is also lacking in diversity and failing to represent the intersectional and layered aspects of what it is to be a girl or young woman: race, ethnicity, wealth or poverty, LGTBQ, disability and so forth.
In order to put their ideals into practice, in every sphere, girls need encouragement, education, role models and opportunities. Everyone has a role to play in supporting them. Families, the media, those in positions of power and wider society can all help in challenging negative gender norms and promoting more positive portrayals of girls and young women in leadership. It is necessary to show girls that they belong and are equal in the places and spaces where they can drive change – from the household and the workplace, to their communities and countries.
There are some simple, yet urgent, things to be done. Make stories about female leaders, from diverse backgrounds, visible and normal in the media to encourage young women’s aspirations and ambitions, not undermine them. Stop the sexualization and the objectification of women and girls on screen and ensure that content doesn’t discriminate or reinforce negative stereotypes and behavior. Outside the entertainment industry, too, make sure women leaders who can serve as powerful role models for millions of young women and girls are visible and have a voice in the media.