Hollywood Gender Gap: 2016 Movies Had More Major Female Characters But Fewer Speaking Roles

Women accounted for 37 percent of major characters in the 100 top-grossing 2016 films, up 3 percentage points from the previous year, according to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University’s annual “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World” study.

“While audiences were still more than twice as likely to see male characters as female characters in top grossing movies, females fared better as protagonists and major characters in 2016,” Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center, said in a statement.

Films with at least one female director and/or writer featured higher percentages of female protagonists and major female characters in comparison to films with exclusively male directors and/or writers.

Women were most likely to appear in comedies (28 percent) followed by dramas and horror films (24 and 17 percent, respectively), while men were most likely to appear in dramas (30 percent), followed by comedies and animated films (17 and 13 percent, respectively).