In partnership with:

In partnership with the Innovation Group and Wunderman Thompson, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media provides key insights from research in advertising over the years. The insights are related mostly to the representation of gender, age, and other additional variables.

Key Findings

  • In total, 25.0% of advertisements feature only men on screen, compared with 5.0% of advertisements that feature only women on screen.
  • In total, 66.0% of women switched off films or television shows if they felt they were negatively stereotyping them.
  • There are about twice as many male characters as female characters shown on screen in advertisements. 
  • Men have three times as much speaking time as women. 
  • In total, 85.0% of women say film and advertising need to catch up to the real world when depicting women. 

Recommendations

  • Think beyond short-termism. “Femvertising” ad campaigns can generate great press and may even cause real change in society. But is that enough to ensure real representation in the long run? Challenge creatives and designers to bring the same energy to everyday ads and accounts. At Refinery29, editors committed to publishing 67% of images of plus-size women — the same percentage of the female population that is size 14 and up. Can agencies commit to similar targets? 
  • Build women into the process, not just the results. Behind the camera. In the studio. On the board. Wherever decisions are made. Placing women in decision-making roles encourages more representative creative work and can add new dimensions to outdated, gender-based stereotypes. Representation behind the scenes is just as important as representation on screen.