Feminism in films.

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    • Subject Terms:
      WOMEN in motion pictures; FILM characters; MOTION pictures; MOTION picture industry; WOMEN
    • Abstract:
      This article explores the shifts in the treatment of women in films from the 1930s to the 1990s. The representation of women in Hollywood films is not an issue of inclusion or exclusion. Women appear in nearly all of the 146 top grossing films included in the analysis. Leading female characters represent only about 25 percent of all characters for the entire period. This seems to be a consistent and rigid proportioning for men and women in the movies. While women have always appeared alongside men in star and supporting roles in Hollywood movies, their interests and activities were quite distinct from those of men for many years. In movies of the 1920s and 1930s, women first began to appear in strong roles--as played by Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Mae West and others. By the 1940s, the period when the content analysis begins, things had changed again.