- Improving Portrayals of Girls and Women in Children’s Media
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Gender equity has progressed in many ways, but male characters still dominate television, movies, and other media for young children. Since women and girls make up half of the human race, the presence of a wide variety of female characters in our children’s earliest media is essential for both girls’ and boys’ development.

The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media focuses first on getting more females and more varied portrayals of both female and male characters into movies, TV, and other media aimed at kids 11 and under.

By making it common for our youngest children to see everywhere a balance of active and complex male and female characters, girls and boys will grow up to empathize with and care more about each others’ stories.
Founder Geena Davis

Research, education, activism and collaboration are the project’s hallmarks as they work hand-in-hand with professionals to improve children’s earliest media exposure from the inside out.

The vast majority of men and women seem to think there’s been tremendous progress in every area and there’s a little bit further to go, but that’s really not the case. In so many areas, women’s progress has stagnated, and improvement is incredibly, incredibly slow. We can’t really rely on the natural course of events to effect this change. All I ever hear is, “Aren’t things getting better now?” … People would love to have all this behind us so that we don’t have to worry about this or struggle anymore. But we do need to be aware of what’s going on.
Geena Davis in an interview

The Institute is an educational and advocacy resource for the entertainment industry (media companies, animators, writers, producers, etc.), the next generation of content-creators, and the public. We outreach to the entertainment industry, the next generation of content-creators, and the public towards supporting positive change in media, so young girls and young boys can grow up treating each other as equals.