--- title: Geena Davis Sees Little Change in Gender Equality in Film description: Davis says the ratio of male to female characters “has been exactly the same” since 1946 canonical: https://time.com/4052759/geena-davis-gender-equality-film-industry/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-28T19:32:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:19:52.724Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Geena Davis Sees Little Change in Gender Equality in Film og:description: Davis says the gender ratio of characters “has been exactly the same” since 1946 og:url: https://time.com/4052759/geena-davis-gender-equality-film-industry/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8070dcf96b0bacbb/6987787e0b72e363a16dcfb9/454029730.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: National Women's History Museum's 3rd Annual Women Making History Event og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Geena Davis Sees Little Change in Gender Equality in Film twitter:description: Davis says the gender ratio of characters “has been exactly the same” since 1946 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8070dcf96b0bacbb/6987787e0b72e363a16dcfb9/454029730.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Geena Davis Sees Little Change in Gender Equality in the Film Industry by [Jessica Derschowitz / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Jessica Derschowitz / Entertainment Weekly Sep 28, 2015 7:32 PM UTC  Actress Geena Davis arrives at the National Women's History Museum's 3rd Annual Women Making History event at Skirball Cultural Center on Aug. 23, 2014 in Los Angeles. Actress Geena Davis arrives at the National Women's History Museum's 3rd Annual Women Making History event at Skirball Cultural Center on Aug. 23, 2014 in Los Angeles.Gregg DeGuire—WireImage by [Jessica Derschowitz / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Jessica Derschowitz / Entertainment Weekly Sep 28, 2015 7:32 PM UTC Nearly 25 years after Geena Davis went over a cliff with Susan Sarandon in _Thelma & Louise_, the actress says little has changed when it comes to gender equality in the film industry. “Having been in some roles that really resonated with women, I became hyper-aware of how women are represented in Hollywood,” Davis said in an interview with Britain’s [_Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/27/geena-davis-institute-sexism-in-film-industry). Davis founded the Geena Davis Institute in 2006, which works to promote gender balance in the media and entertainment industries. The research-based organization is launching its first [Global Symposium on Gender in Media](http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/announcements/geena-davis-launch-global-symposium-gender-media-bfi-london-film) next month at the London Film Festival, and comes as women in Hollywood are sounding off about gender equality — from [Patricia Arquette](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/02/22/oscars-2015-winner-patricia-arquettes-rally-cry-for-wage-equality-rights) to [Anne Hathaway](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/09/03/anne-hathaway-talks-losing-roles-younger-actresses), [Emma Thompson](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/21/emma-thompson-hollywood-sexism-is-worse), [Carey Mulligan](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/09/18/suffragette-carey-mulligan-womens-stories-hollywood) and [Meryl Streep](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/23/meryl-streep-congress-equal-rights-amendment). But even with the recent slate of films with strong female leads, like _Trainwreck, Bridesmaids_ and _The Hunger Games_ franchise, Davis says the ratio of male to female characters “has been exactly the same” since 1946, and that times haven’t really changed at all. “After _Thelma & Louise_, which was pretty noticed and potent and significant, \[people were saying\] ‘This changes everything! There’s going to be so many female buddy movies!’ and nothing changed,” Davis said in the interview. “And then the next movie I did was _A League of Their Own_, which was a huge hit and all the talk was, ‘Well now, beyond a doubt, women’s sports movies, we’re going to see a wave of them because this was so successful.’ That’s balls. It took 10 years until _Bend It Like Beckham_ came out. So, there was no trend whatsoever.” Davis has been an outspoken proponent of gender equality in Hollywood for some time. “When I go into these meetings, I say, ‘If you are going to make a movie starring a woman, that is great, and please cast me,’” [she told Vanity Fair earlier this year](http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/02/geena-davis-interview). “ ‘But what I would love for you to do is to look at the movies you are already going to make, that you have planned out and slated, and just go through \[their scripts\] and change some first names to female names. Just with the stroke of a pen, you’ve now created probably very unique un-stereotyped female characters.’” You can read her full interview at the [_Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/27/geena-davis-institute-sexism-in-film-industry)_._ _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/09/28/geena-davis-gender-equality-hollywood?hootPostID=49e0c61ea9ac99ffb29feecd2734fb6e) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4052759/geena-davis-gender-equality-film-industry/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4052759/geena-davis-gender-equality-film-industry/"},"headline":"Geena Davis Sees Little Change in Gender Equality in the Film Industry","datePublished":"2015-09-28T19:32:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:19:52.724Z","description":"Davis says the ratio of male to female characters “has been exactly the same” since 1946","url":"https://time.com/4052759/geena-davis-gender-equality-film-industry/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8070dcf96b0bacbb/6987787e0b72e363a16dcfb9/454029730.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jessica Derschowitz / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8070dcf96b0bacbb/6987787e0b72e363a16dcfb9/454029730.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"National Women's History Museum's 3rd Annual Women Making History Event","caption":"National Women's History Museum's 3rd Annual Women Making History Event","creditText":"Gregg DeGuire—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4052759/geena-davis-gender-equality-film-industry/","name":"Geena Davis Sees Little Change in Gender Equality in the Film Industry"}}]}] ```