Presentation at RC37 Sociology of Arts, ISA third Forum Vienna 2016

1. Gender Occupational Segregation in Films
Does the Story Still Goes on?
MichaelTSANGARIS, University of Piraeus, Greece
Iliana PAZARZI, OkypusTheatre Company, Greece
RC37 Sociology of Arts, ISA third ForumVienna 2016
this presentation has been partly supported by
the University of Piraeus Research Center

2. gender occupational segregation in films
does the story still goes on?
• this is a survey of 90 top box office films, produced worldwide during the last
three decades (1990, 2000 and 2010) that deals with professional occupations
of gender representations in films
• the aim of the study is to initiate a discussion that questions some of the
artistic conventions and methods of film-making that would help to
reconsider the films in relation to gender representations

3. gender occupational segregation in films
does the story still goes on?
• brief review on theory and research
• presentation of our research
• discussion about the results in relation to artistic conventions / methods of
film-making

4. gender and visual arts
• Pollock 1987, 1992
• Leader 1997
• Tinagli 1997
• Caviness 2001
• Bahrani 2001
• Garrard 2010

5. gender and music
• Clιment 1979
• Abbate 1991
• McClary 1993
• Hadlock 2014
• Smart 2014

6. gender, literature and philosophy
• Julia Kristeva 1980
• Luce Irigaray 1991
• Helen Cixous 1991

7. feminist film theory
• Rosen 1973
• Haskell 1974
• Mulvey 1975
• Johnston 1975
• Kaplan 1983
• de Lauretis 1987

8. media representations and gender stereotyping
• Friedan 1963
• Goffman 1979
• Courtney &Whipple 1983
• Barthel 1987
• Kilbourne 1990

9. previous research on gendered employment patterns in films
• Ceulemans & Fauconnier 1979
• Signorelli 1997
• Steinke 2005
• Flicker 2006
• Smith, Choueiti, Prescott & Pieper 2012
• Lauzen 2015
most past reviews emphasized the overall under-representation of
women (3:1)
and sustained that women were typically under-represented as a
labour force ‘horizontally’ and ‘vertically’ in contrast to men

10. research method
- sample of 90 worldwide productions box office films [ mostly USA and
European ]
- divided three chronological periods 1990-1999, 2000-2009 and 2010-2015
- units of the analysis were the active characters of the films
- data were gathered and categorized in a classification table
- for the classification of the occupations we used the International Standard
Classification of Occupations-2007 (ISCO-2007) ILO

11. research method
table of classification
1. GENDER (M or F)
2. EMPLOYED
3. UNEMPOYED
4. NOT EMPLOYED
5. MANAGER
6. PROFESSIONAL
7. TECHNICIAN AND ASS0CIATE PROFESSIONALS
8. CLERICAL SUPPORT WORKER
9. SERVICE AND SALES WORKERS
10. AGRICULTURAL FORESTRY FISHERY
11. CRAFT TRADE WORKER
12. PLANT AND MACHINE OPERATOR AND ASSEMBLER
13. ELEMENTARY OCCUPATIONS
14. ARMED FORCES
14. LEADER
15. FOLLOWER.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
SUM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

12. research data
1990-1999
1. Golden Eye (1995) Martin Campbell $353,600,000
2. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) Chris Columbus $441,286,003
3.Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) Roger Spottiswoode $346,632,007
4. PrettyWoman (1990) Garry Marshall $463,406,268
5. LethalWeapon 4 (1998) Richard Donner $285,444,603
6. Hot Shots! (1991) JimAbrahams $181,096,164
7. Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) Jim Abrahams $133,800,000
8. Eraser (1996) Chuck Russell $242,295,562
9. Cape Fear (1991) Martin Scorsese $182,300,000
10. LethalWeapon 4 (1998) Richard Donner $285,444,603
11. Dumb & Dumber (1994) Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly $247,275,354
12. GoodWill Hunting (1997) GusVan Sant $225,933,435
13. Days ofThunder (1990)Tony Scott $165,870,733
14. Air Force One (1997) Wolfgang Petersen $315,156,409
15. Bean (1997) Mel Smith $251,212,670
16. Disclosure (1994) Barry Levinson $214,015,089
17. Indecent Proposal (1993) Adrian Lyne $266,614,100
18. Home Alone (1990) Chris Columbus $533,761,243
19. Another 48 Hrs. (1990) Walter Hill $153,520,000
20. Home Alone 2: Lost in NewYork (1992) Chris Columbus $358,991,681
21. Con Air (1997) SimonWest $224,012,234
22. Bird on aWire (1990) John Badham $138,699,000
23. Philadelphia (1993) Jonathan Demme $206,678,440
24. Jerry Maguire (1996) Cameron Crowe $273,952,592
25. Clear and Present Danger (1994) Phillip Noyce $215,887,717
26. American Beauty (1999) Sam Mendes $356,296,601
27. Notting Hill (1999) Roger Michell $363,889,678
28. Forrest Gump (1994) Robert Zemeckis $680,252,182
29. Liar Liar (1997)Tom Shadyac $306,410,615
30. My Best Friend'sWedding (1997) P.J. Hogan $299,288,605

13. research data
2000-2009
1. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) Doug Liman $478,207,520
2.The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) Paul Greengrass $442,824,138
3. Sex and the City (2008) Michael Patrick King $415,252,786
4. Mission: Impossible II (2000) JohnWoo $546,388,105
5. Quantum of Solace (2008) Marc Forster $586,368,427
6. DieAnother Day (2002) LeeTamahori $431,971,116
7. Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) Sharon Maguire $281,943,427
8. Hannibal (2001) Ridley Scott $351,692,268
9. Rush Hour 2 (2001) Brett Ratner $347,325,802
10. Casino Royale (2006) Martin Campbell $599,645,960
11.The Hangover (2009)Todd Phillips $467,483,912
12. Something'sGotta Give (2003) Nancy Meyers $266,728,738
13. Bad Boys II (2003) Michael Bay $273,339,556
14. Meet the Fockers (2004) Jay Roach $516,642,939
15. Mamma Mia! (2008) Phyllida Lloyd $609,841,637
16.The DevilWears Prada (2006) David Frankel $326,551,094
17.The Bourne Supremacy (2004) Paul Greengrass $279,941,941
18. My Big FatGreek Wedding (2002) Joel Zwick $368,744,044
19. Erin Bronvich (2000) Steven Soderbergh $256,595,205
20. Mission: Impossible III (2006) $397,850,012
21. GranTorino (2008) Clint Eastwood $269,958,228
22.Angels & Demons (2009) Ron Howard $485,975,846
23. Charlie's Angels (2000) McG $264,105,545
24. American Pie 2 (2001) J.B. Rogers $287,508,595
25. Fast & Furious (2009) Justin Lin $363,164,265
26. Ocean'sTwelve (2004) Steven Soderbergh $362,744,280
27. Charlie's Angels (2000) McG $264,100,000
28. Ocean's Eleven (2001) Steven Soderbergh $444,305,771
29.The Perfect Storm (2000)Wolfgang Petersen $328,718,434
30.The DaVinci Code (2006) Ron Howard $758,239,851

14. research data
2010-2015
1. Furious 6 (2013) Justin Lin $788,686,330
2.Taken 3 (2014) Olivier Megaton $325,771,424
3. Spy (2015) Paul Feig $236,425,712
4. Little Fockers (2010) PaulWeitz $310,650,585
5. A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) John Moore $306,049,198
6. Kingsman:The Secret Service (2014) MatthewVaughn $414,351,546
7. American Sniper (2014) Clint Eastwood $547,326,372
8.The Hangover Part III (2013) Todd Phillips $362,000,072
9. Bridesmaids (2011) Paul Feig $288,383,523
10.The Karate Kid (2010) Harald Zwart $359,126,022
11. Skyfall (2012) Sam Mendes $1,108,561,013
12.The Hangover II (2011)Todd Phillips $586,764,305
13. Spectre (2015) Sam Mendes $722,196,529
14. Intouchables (2011) Olivier Nakache, EricToledano $426,480,871
15.The Expendables 2 (2012) SimonWest $312,584,214
16. Fast Five (2011) Justin Lin $626,137,675
17.The Heat (I) (2013) Paul Feig $229,930,771
18.We're the Millers (2013) Rawson MarshallThurber $269,994,119
19.TheTourist (2010) Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck $278,346,189
20.The Fault in Our Stars (2014) Josh Boone $307,239,013
21. Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) Elizabeth Banks $287,144,079
22. Furious Seven (2015) JamesWan $1,515,047,670
23. Grown Ups 2 (2013) Dennis Dugan $246,984,278
24. Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) SamTaylor-Johnson $570,489,358
25.Taken 2 (2012) Olivier Megaton $376,141,306
26. Neighbors (2014) Nicholas Stoller $268,157,400
27. 22 Jump Street (2014) Phil Lord, Christopher Miller $331,333,876
28. Gone Girl (2014) David Fincher $469,073,669
29. Black Swan (2010) Darren Aronofsky $329,398,046
30. Sex and the City 2 (2010) Michael Patrick King $294,680,778

15. research findings
in a total number of 1.625 active characters extracted from ninety films over the
period of 1990-2015, females comprised 24.14% (411) while males 75.82% (1214)
as it seems our analysis still reaches the limits of the regular ratio 3men:1woman
that most of the other past studies have reported
this means that for at least 25 years we see in cinema more or less three men for
every woman shown

16. research findings
1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-2015
males females males females males females
employed 7 3 7 3 8 2
unemployed 7 3 6 4 6 4
not employed 5 5 2 8 5 5
managers 9 1 8 2 9 1
professionals 7 3 7 3 6 4
technicians and assosiate professions 7 3 7 3 7 3
clerical support workers 5 5 4 6 4 6
service and sales workers 7 3 7 3 7 3
agricultural forestry and fishery workers 8 2 9 1 7 3
craft trade workers 9 1 8 2 8 2
plant machine operators and assemblers 9 1 6 4 8 2
elementary occupations 6 4 7 3 7 3
armed forces 9 1 9 1 10 0

17. research findings
• concerning leadership we had an overall number of 545 active characters
identified as leaders and 818 as followers over the entire period of 1990 to
2015.
• throughout all of the three periods out of the ten leader characters, the eight
were men and the two women
• respectively, out of the ten followers, the six were men and the four women

18. discussion
• it is beyond any doubt that cinema originates from the existing male-dominated
culture in the same way as all the other modes of communication do (language,
theatre, radio, television etc.), determined in many ways to reproduce the
patriarchal ideology
• visual representations are set up in a specific historical background and can
portray in certain ways the dominant beliefs
• ideological dispositions can be included in film representations, consciously or
unconsciously by different people, on many occasions during the process of the
artistic creation

19. discussion
• Howard Becker (1984) and Pierre Bourdieu (1993) had already emphasize
that each work of art is undeniably a co-operative product
• this is more evident in film-making in which apart from the director and
the actors, there is a large group of people ‘behind-the-scenes’ such as
writers, musicians, make-up artists, executive producers, producers, editors,
cinematographers, etc.
• conventions can be related to several choices that are made during the
process of film-making and a great number of them take place
‘mechanically’ as a part of a routine

20. discussion
• there is a ratio of one woman to every three men shown in g-rated
films that has been the basic formula since the beginning of cinema as
most of the studies have exposed
• the fact is that gender demographics in films have never corresponded
to reality and since these conventions has been standardized
became rigid and it will take a great deal of time to change
• a closer look to the film production shows that even women directors
use the traditional conventions
• artistic conventions are very solid in the film industry as economic
risks increase when progressive creativity breaks up with the existing
formulas and standards

21. conclusions
• film representations by including formulated conventions reflect the
principles and the philosophy of patriarchy
• we believe that all false gender demographics which have predominated in
the world of cinema have been ‘ironically’ established as a kind of a ‘golden
ratio’ (3:1) by the classic g-rated movie makers
however they have nothing to do with empirical reality

22. conclusions
• cinema’s transformation towards an unbiased artistic medium, supporting
gender equality is certainly a progressive step of the art-world…
however it has not been accomplished yet…
• anyway, as a matter of fact most social researchers believe that for a reliable
investigation of a certain society through films it is always necessary to take
into account additionally different sources of information as well
• in other words as Picasso noted:
‘…we all know that Art is not truth… Art is a lie that makes us realize truth…’