New Study Finds Vast Gender Imbalance
In Top-grossing G-rated Movies

In America's top grossing general audience movies for young children, more than two out of three characters are males and females are far less likely to be central characters driving the storyline, according to "Where the Girls Aren't," the first report from a major study by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (USC) for the See Jane program of the national nonprofit Dads & Daughters (DADs).

The See Jane program was founded by Geena Davis to advocate for balance in gender representation and address gender stereotyping in media made for children.

In "Where the Girls Aren't," released in February, the most in-depth content analysis ever of G-rated movies, researchers studied the 101 top-grossing G-rated films released between 1990 and 2005. The research analyzed a total of 4,249 speaking characters appearing across all the films in the sample.

Key findings:

• There are three male characters for every one female character.
• Fewer than one in three (28 percent) of the speaking characters (both real and animated) are female.
• Fewer than one in five (17 percent) of the characters in crowd scenes are female.

Ms. Magazine's Top 10 News Stories
For and About Women in 2005

1. Most significant: Sandra Day O'Connor resigns from the Supreme Court, leaving a vacancy and likely a shift in direction of the court threatening to narrow women’s rights.

2. Most outrageous rejection of science: FDA controversy: stalls once again on Plan B – flying in the face of scientific decision making.

3. Most honorable resignation: FDA Director of Women’s Health, Dr. Susan Wood resigns in protest. Her replacement is a male veterinarian until women’s groups roar in protest. FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford resigns shortly thereafter in a cloud of mystery. Meanwhile, women lack over-the-counter access to a safe and reliable form of emergency contraception.

4. Most notable ascents: Women reach new leadership heights globally as women Presidents or Prime Ministers are elected in two countries – in Liberia and Germany- with Michelle Bachelet front-runner for Chile ’s January 15 presidential runoff (she won). Simultaneously, Japan decides a woman can become heir to the throne.

5. Most likely to save lives: Congress reauthorizes the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

6. Most important for women over 65: Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, a move that would undermine the economic security for millions of American women, fails in part because of the outcry from women.

7. Most shameful: The Bush Administration for the fourth year in a row refuses to release congressionally-appropriated funding to UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund. Now totaling $136 million, these lost funds could have been used to save the lives of women, repair obstetric fistulas, prevent maternal mortality and illnesses.

8. Most likely to make us hope life imitates art: The U.S. finally gets a woman president - at least on TV, as COMMANDER IN CHIEF scores big with viewers on ABC.

9. Most likely to evoke grateful memories: The women's and civil rights movements lose four great women leaders: Shirley Chisholm, Molly Yard, C. Delores Tucker and Rosa Parks.

10. Most endangered: Access to birth control. With pharmacists denying access in the U.S. and the Bush Administration' s move to increase funds for abstinence in international and domestic policies at the expense of more effective prevention of teen pregnancies and HIV/AIDS.

For more information on Ms. Magazine, please go to: www.msmagazine.com

Syndicated Work-Life Writer
Kleiman Writes Last Column

Carol Kleiman wrapped up her long-running column, which began as a feature on women and work for the Chicago Tribune, on Jan. 31.

As “Working Woman”, which started in 1967 in the features section (long before the national magazine with that title was launched), morphed into Women at Work, appearing in the Tribune’s Business section, and then, more recently, became WorkLife, Kleiman also wrote two other columns, Jobs and Letters (where she became the Career Coach both in the paper and on CLTV) for the Business section,

Her work was always incisive and witty, and very, very helpful. In her farewell column, Kleiman reviewed the many changes in the business world she’d observed since she began the column when help-wanted ads were still segregated by sex. Here’s just one: “By the thousands, women, fed up with Corporate America, started their own businesses and discovered they finally had a boss who understood them.”

Research in Depth: First Ladies and the Press: Looking Ahead

Research in Depth: Portrayals of Romantic Relationships on Adolescent Television: A Content Analysis

Commentary: Journalist Jill Carroll and Others Are Inspirations

Plus News Briefs, People and Book Reviews

Media Report to Women has hard copies of back issues dating to its founding in 1972. Indispensable for research!