Women Still Vastly Underrepresented in Hollywood - East Idaho News
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Women Still Vastly Underrepresented in Hollywood

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ABC 072814 JenniferLeeFrozen?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1406557421118ABC/Rick Rowell(LOS ANGELES) — Disney’s Frozen was the highest grossing movie of 2013 but one of its directors was an anomaly.

According to a new study, Jennifer Lee was among the very, very few women who helmed a big film last year.

In fact, just under two percent of the directors were women, according to the findings of University of Southern California’s Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative. That figure is the lowest of the past six years.

The researchers examined some 25,000 speaking characters in 600 top-grossing films from 2007 through 2013 and determined that women were vastly unrepresented both on camera and behind the scenes.

In 2013, for instance, 7.4 percent of writers of the top-grossing movies were women.

As far as acting parts are concerned, women made up 36 percent of the characters in comedies during the six years studied while falling between 20 and about 24 percent of those in action movies.

What explains the lack of women in movies? USC Annenberg associate professor Stacy L. Smith says it all about money, adding: “The people who fund films and green light content are mostly male. Women are perceived to lack confidence and to be less trustworthy with resources.”


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