“When my friends and I would act out movies as kids, we’d play the guys’ roles, since they had the most interesting things to do. Decades later, I can hardly believe my sons and daughter are seeing many of the same limited choices in current films.” – Geena Davis
During college I interned at Sports Illustrated for Kids magazine, which targeted kids ages 8-12. That summer I learned that there was a limit on how much female athlete editorial could be put in each issue of the magazine because the articles about female athletes were not nearly as well read as the ones about male athletes.
I’m not knocking the magazine for making a business decision to continue to engage their audience. Kids of both genders are brought up thinking that male athletes are cooler than female athletes. Wouldn’t it be nice, however, to change that perception?
Sadly, studies show that gender stereotyping is also a serious issue on TV and in film. Females comprise over half the population yet they are outnumbered 3:1 in family films. When females are shown, they are in sexy attire, have unrealistic figures or (my personal pet peeve) play the role of a helpless female. In family films, 80% of employed characters are male while just 20% are female, compared to the 50:50 ratio in the real world. Just imagine how limitless the world would be if half of our population were given a fair representation in the media.
One of the most memorable films with strong female characters is Thelma and Louise, and one of the best lines in that 
movie is when Louise tells Thelma that, “You only get what you settle for.”
Actress and role model Geena Davis, who starred in Thelma and Louise, does not settle and someday soon there might just be a generation of girls who can thank her for that. Last week at the Social Good Summit I was fascinated to learn about the work that she is doing with her foundation, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. In fact, she commissioned the largest research project on gender in film and television ever undertaken which confirmed the presence of gender disparity on both the large and small screens. The Institute and its programming arm, See Jane, are working diligently to change gender stereotypes in media and entertainment, particularly among children’s programming.
As Geena spoke at the Summit, she mentioned that See Jane has a heartwarming video learning series for children to raise awareness about gender stereotypes and it wasn’t until watching this that I truly understood the impact that gender stereotyping in television and film can have on children.
I am so very grateful that Geena Davis has found her marbles. Are you ready to learn more? Just go to SeeJane.org or follow along on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/GDIGM.
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Look who Found the Marbles supports non-profit organizations in their mission to serve and did not receive any compensation, monetary or otherwise, for this post. Please see the Disclosure policy on this site with any questions. If you know someone who has Found the Marbles, send an email to Jessica@FoundtheMarbles.com.
I am so proud of Gena’s work on this project! I took a “feminism and literature” class and sadly much of the same stereotypes we have fought for centuries to overturn are still present. I know with Gena’s name behind it there will be changes made and I look forward to them.
Thank you for sharing, this is such wonderful news!
Sadly, the TV series Mad Men, Playboy Club & Pan Am won’t help, unless we can appreciate how far we’ve come and how far we’ve yet to go. Honorable foundation Geena has started. Thanks for sharing!
This is a great organization. I’m always happy to hear stars using their influence to do good things. Thanks for sharing!
Loved Thelma and Louise!
Following you on GFC from Tuesday blog hop!
Happy Blogging, love your blog!
Good for you for sharing and good for Genna Davis for starting this foundation..
found you thru triple threat tue and hope u will check us out on twitter/ GFC/ FB too
http://twinswithtots.blogspot.com/
Love that clip!
One of our patients didn’t want to see the “dentist’s wife”(me), he wanted to see the dentist(my husband). You think the D.M.D after my name could have helped him out. Pretty sad when you think about it. Half of my dental school class was women in 1998.
I like the name of your blog. Great concept too!!! #commenthour
One of my favorite things about blogging is learning about important programs and campaigns like that are changing out society for the better! That’s also very interesting to hear about your internship experiences. I can only hope projects like this will help expose these issues more.
Wow I never thought of it that way but girls sports in High School were never the same as boys good for the blog to make more people aware.
wow, what a great program and obviously so needed. I have to tell you, I’ve always loved that quote from Thelma and Louise and have often quoted it to friends when they have been faced with big decisions in life about work, men etc.
Words to live by really.