‘Positive shift’ for female roles
LOS ANGELES • Change has come to the multiplex.
In 2019, Captain Marvel, Little Women, Us, and Frozen 2 helped usher in a banner year for female protagonists. Women made unprecedented gains as the stars in the top- grossing films, with the percentage of female leads rising to 40 per cent from 31 per cent, a new study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University shows. That’s a historic high. In all, 43 per cent of films featured male protagonists, and 17 per cent had ensembles. The study defines protagonists as the character whose perspective shapes the story.
Moreover, 45 per cent of female protagonists appeared in studio features and 55 per cent were in independent features. That marks a dramatic shift from 2018, when females were more than twice as likely to appear in independent features as studio features. It’s also a sign the major studios may be responding to public pressure to tell a wider range of stories.
“We have now seen two consecutive years of substantial gains for female protagonists, indicating the beginning of a positive shift in representation,” said study author Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
Women took more lead roles, but very little changed farther down the call sheet. In 2019, the percentage appearing as major characters and speaking characters remained stable. Women played 37 per cent of major characters, a percentage point increase from the previous year, and 34 per cent of all speaking characters, down a percentage point from 2018.
The picture wasn’t bright when it came to telling stories centred on women from underrepresented groups. The percentage of black females in speaking roles declined slightly to 20 per cent in 2019 from 21 per cent in 2018, while the percentage of Asian female characters reverted to 2017 levels at seven per cent. That figure had increased dramatically to 10 per cent with the 2018 release of Crazy Rich Asians. The percentage of Latinas increased slightly to five per cent in 2019 from four per cent in 2018. Put another way, in 2019, 70 per cent of major female characters were white, 18 per cent were black, six per cent were Latina and five per cent were Asian.
The study analyzed more than 2,300 characters appearing in the 100 top-grossing domestic films of 2019.