Geena Davis was quite certain that there weren't enough roles for women in film and was tired of getting poo-pooed by studio executives who denied that there was a problem. So, she sponsored her own academic study and found that her suspicions were correct.

So, Davis set out to find data. She founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2006 and sponsored an academic study — enlisting professors at the U.S.C. Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism to analyze the content of 101 children’s movies released between 1990 and 2004. Last year she followed up with an analysis of films from 2004 to 2009. Both reached the same conclusions. Of the 5,554 speaking characters studied, 71 percent were male and 29 percent were female. That’s a 2.42 to 1 ratio, which has not changed much in 20 years.

Not only were female leads in short supply, researchers found, but in crowd scenes and group scenes only 17 percent of characters were women. In addition, female characters were far more likely to be “hypersexualized” — 25 percent were wearing tight , provocative, revealing clothing, compared with four percent of males — and physically attractive (14 percent versus. 3.6 percent). The female characters were younger than their male counterparts, and the sole goal of the females was usually to find romance. Not one of the animated female characters had a shape that was possible in real life.

Women only compose 17 percent of characters in group scenes. What?? We can't even mill about mindlessly in the background of a shot? That's just crazy.

My buddy, Erin, (Marketing, Media, and Childhood) attended the SPARK conference in New York a few weeks ago. Davis was the keynote speaker; Erin was very impressed with her. Here's her blog post about the event. While you're there, read Erin's post about gendered toys.