In 2018, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in partnership with Lyda Hill Philanthropies conducted and published the major new research study, “Portray Her: Representations of Women STEM Characters in Media.” The first-of-its-kind study included an extensive ten-year content analysis of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) characters in entertainment media and a nationally representative survey of girls and young women. These two methods assessed how STEM professions are represented in media, and how these representations (and messages from society more broadly) affect girls’ perceptions of and participation in STEM. The study finds that media is influential in shaping attitudes toward STEM, but content producers continue to disproportionately represent STEM characters as white men, especially leading characters. It also demonstrates the profound role that media plays in shaping young people’s aspirations and career paths and the responsibility that content producers have in improving media representations of STEM characters when it comes to gender and race. The report, which largely targets entertainment industry content creators, includes concrete recommendations for improving media representations of STEM characters when it comes to gender and race as a way to directly increase girls and women’s future participation in STEM education and careers.

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• United States of America

• Women

This work has been scaled. Building off the success and momentum of this report, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and Lyda Hill Philanthropies have launched a major new advocacy campaign working closely with content producers to increase the representation of women and people of color as STEM characters in major new projects. Leveraging the Geena Davis Institute’s connections within the entertainment industry, and relying on the data from “Portray Her: Representations of Women STEM Characters in Media,” the project team has embarked on a coordinated advocacy project to educate leading studios and content creators on the urgency and necessity to create more female characters of color in STEM roles on screen. The campaign includes meeting one-on-one with industry targets to educate them and influence future projects; and supporting and working collaboratively with studios and content producers to ensure that real changes are implemented in future projects. Targets include both major executives (top down approach), as well as writer’s rooms (bottom up approach). To date, the research has been presented to executives and writers at over 50 major studios. The project team has also developed a dynamic online toolkit of resources for content creators to support the creation and inclusion of diverse female STEM characters in future media projects.

Promote equality of women in media and ICT's.

• Diversity of media ownership • Gender portrayal in the media • Role of media in the Information Society • Traditional media • Training of media professionals .