Gender Roles on Television

Portrayals of Women and Men

In study after study, men have outnumbered women in prime-time dramatic programming, although the underrepresentation of women on television has decreased to some extent in the past 50 years. The earliest studies of network television broadcast during the early 1950s found three men for every woman. Most of the studies conducted during the 1970s and early 1980s found a high degree of consistency in the television world's demography, with men typically outnumbering women by three to one. More recent studies put the ratio at somewhat less than two to one. There are, however, differences by program genre, with situation comedies having a more equitable male-female mix and action programs having more men than women.

Although television characters have continued to move toward greater representation of women, the numbers still favor men in most program genres. The underrepresentation is found in programs that are new each season as well as those that have been on the air for several years. Moreover, except in situation comedies, women are often cast in minor roles rather than major roles. In 1999, Nancy Signorielli and Aaron Bacue found that the proportion of women in leading and supporting roles increased significantly and steadily between 1967 and 1998, moving from 24% of the characters in 1967 to a high of 43% in 1996 and down to 38% in the spring of 1998. There is also some evidence that some of the programs of the 1990s present more negative than positive characterizations, compared to programs seen in the early years of television.

Similar patterns are found in cable programming, even though cable, because of its numerous channels, has been heralded for its likelihood to provide greater diversity. Nevertheless, the patterns of underrepresentation in broadcast programming are also found in cable programs, with males continuing to outnumber women by two or three to one. The male-female distribution is even more lopsided when programs are examined that air during the prime-time hours on channels that can be received only by cable (i.e., programs not found on the network broadcast channels).

Women in prime time are almost always depicted as younger than their male counterparts who, in turn, are portrayed as older and wiser. Moreover, as female characters age, they become decreasingly significant to the plot, and the few older characters who appear typically lack clearly defined roles. In addition, as [Page 368]characters age, the life cycle roles of men and women differ: Older men (65 or older) maintain their positions as active, settled, mature adults, yet older women are more likely to be designated as elderly.

...