To encourage girls and women to pursue STEAM careers, it is crucial to increase the positive representation of female role models in science. The study uses the Bechdel test and an adapted Greimas Actantial Method to analyse mainstream films. Results show that female characters are often attractive, Caucasian scientists, not mothers, and play secondary roles above all. The most represented careers were in Biology, Astronomy, and Social or Human Behavioural Sciences. Representation of women in leadership positions in the STEAM sector in commercial movies is clearly deficient.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.