A 2018 study by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, updated last year, revealed that media exposes 81% of Americans to science-related content. Yet, despite this visibility, women in STEM Representation in Hollywood remains vastly underrepresented both in STEM careers and on-screen STEM roles.
The Portray Her 2.0 study revealed many other details about women in STEM and the intersection with Hollywood, many of which were discussed at The Hollywood Summit: Advancing Women in Tech event hosted by the Geena Davis Institute alongside Nokia Bell Labs.
While Hollywood has made strides in representation, Madeleine Di Nonno, President and CEO of the Geena Davis Institute, says there’s still a way to go.
“What happens in the world of make-believe can have real-world impact,” she said. “And historically, the Institute’s always looked at not only are there female characters, but what are they doing? Do they have a sense of agency?”
The numbers reveal a troubling disparity.
According to the Institute’s research, there has been little change in women’s representation of STEM characters for all levels of prominence, with the figure standing at 38%.
Di Nonno said most STEM characters came from life sciences.
“Tt was great, we had a lot of doctors, but the jobs, the future, was really around computing and mathematics and engineering, and those things were not even 1-2%,” she said.
To close this gap, the Geena Davis Institute urges Hollywood to increase and diversify female STEM characters — not just in number but in how they’re portrayed. Their research revealed that men in STEM were eight times more likely than women to be villains.
They recommend portraying women in ways that make STEM careers seem attainable and aspirational to young women.
For Weiss, that’s why storytelling matters.
“I think it’s really important that we have a representation of women in tech and science on screen, because — I’ll borrow from the Geena Davis Institute — If she can see it, she can be it,’” she says. “And I wholly subscribe to that.”
And if these efforts succeed, the next generation of women in STEM won’t just be watching the stories unfold — they’ll be the ones writing them.
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Women in STEM Representation in Hollywood.
