Women had lead roles in about half of 2019's family films, study finds

Last year was a momentous one for women in family films, one new study showed.

According to new findings from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, the percentage of female leads in family films -- or movies with a G, PG, or PG-13 rating -- hit 48% in 2019.

That number has doubled since 2007 when a female character anchored only 24% of family films.

"Media images have a huge impact on how we see ourselves and judge our value. When you see someone like yourself reflected, you take in the message: 'There's someone like me, I must belong,'" Davis said. "This is why it's vital for children to see — from the beginning — fictitious worlds that reflect the real world, which is half female and very diverse. With female lead characters now at parity in kids' movies and TV, girls will be far more likely to see that they are just as important as boys, and that they do half of the interesting, important things. Boys will take this message in unconsciously too, and thus be more likely to see girls as equals."

The organization's annual See Jane 2020 Report also studied how race and ethnicity, sexuality, disability, age, and body sizes are represented in family films, and while some categories saw more growth than others, parity has yet to be reached in those categories. Still, the percentage of leads of color reached a high of 30% last year -- up from 22% in 2007 -- and 8% of family films featured a lead with a disability, which is a high.

Davis praised "the progress being made," but added in her written statement: "There's still much work to be done."

Only 2% of family films last year featured an LGBTQ+ character, down from 5% in 2018, the study found, and just 9.1% of characters in the films studied were 60 years old or older. With regard to body size, only 8.3% of family film characters are large, and many of them are presented as "damaging stereotypes," according to the report.

Davis stated, however, that she believes change is coming -- and not a moment too soon.

"Creating more diverse characters means being more relevant to a larger segment of the population," Davis said, "and that makes your project literally more colorful."