Study: Female Protagonists In Film Reach Parity

In a new study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, it has been revealed that the percentage of top-grossing films with female protagonists has equaled the percentage of films with male protagonists.

This marks the first time this has happened in recent history. Of the 100 top domestic grossing films in 2024, 42% had female protagonists – matching the 42% of films with male protagonists. That’s a big change from 2023 when the split was 28% female/62% male.

The other 16% featured ensembles, up from 9% in 2023. Those numbers focus only on protagonists from whose perspective the story is told, and only covers the top 100 films – so the number can alter dramatically.

There are still several key factors where women fall behind men in screen representation. Most visibly? Age. Only 26% of female characters were 40 and older, whereas 55% of male characters were over 40.

Similarly, there are issues with role quality – only 39% of the Top 100 had major female characters, only 37% had female characters in speaking roles, and only 21% had more female than male speaking characters. Male characters portrayed as leaders outnumbered women 2-to-1.

In films with at least one woman director and/or writer, women were protagonists 81% of the time. In films with exclusively male directors and/or writers, males were protagonists 67% of the time.

Source: Variety

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