Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Bullock may have been nominated for an Oscar for "Gravity," but a new study shows just how little female roles are taking up Hollywood.
Even though the year included many standout roles for women like Sandra Bullock's Oscar nominated performance in "Gravity," the new numbers show just how lacking Hollywood is when it comes to female characters.
Martha Lauzen, the director of SDSU's Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, who created the study, looked at 2,300 characters in the top grossing films of the year.
While the 15% number is unsettling, Lauzen's study titled "It's A Man's (Celluloid) World" found other numbers that were just as alarming:
- Women only made up 29% of major characters.
- Only 30% of all speaking roles went to women.
- 13% of the top 100 films featured equal numbers of both male and female characters.
- Female characters remain younger than male characters with 26% being in their 20's and 28% being in their 30's (compared to men at 27% in their 30's and 31% in their 40's).
- Race was skewed even more with 73% of all female characters being white. The study even states that moviegoers were as likely to see an "other-worldly" female character (3%) as they were to see an Asian female character (3%).
- 61% of male characters were actually seen working compared to the much smaller 40% of women.