Portrayal of gender

Industry analysis Shari Anne Brill of Carat USA states, “For years, when men were behind the camera, women were really ditsy. Now you have female leads playing superheroes, or super business women”. The stereotypes of women as housewives or presented as sex symbols continued throughout the 1980s and arguably to a lesser extent in the 21st century.                                                                                .                                                              
While the depiction of women is confined to either the housewife or the ditsy bombshell, men are also depicted in unrealistic stereotypes - however, in general these stereotypes embody qualities--courage, stoicism, rationality--that society values.

In TV dramas, from the articles it shows that there are a lot less prominent female characters compared to males characters. During the 50s-70s women were portrayed with less depth and importance as male characters. Especially during children's television there are more male characters compared to female characters.

Prime time television since the 1950s has been aimed at and catered towards males. In 1952, 68% of characters in primetime dramas were male; in 1973, 74% of characters in these shows were male. In 1970 the National Organization for Women (NOW) took action. They formed a task force to study and change the “derogatory stereotypes of women on television.” In 1972 they challenged the licences of two network-owned stations on the basis of their sexist programming. 

In more recent research, NOW have found that:

• On primetime cable news programs, more than three-quarters of the hosts are white men and less than a quarter are white women. None of the hosts are people of color. The typical guest on these shows is white and male; overall, 67 percent of the guests are men and 84 percent are white.
• In children's television, male characters appear at about twice the rate of female characters.
• Animated programs in particular are more likely to portray male characters.
• Females are almost four times as likely to be presented in sexy attire and twice as likely to be shown with a diminutive waist.
• In a study of G-rated films from 1990-2005, only 28 percent of the speaking characters (both live and animated) were female. More than four out of five of the narrators were male. Eighty-five percent of the characters were white.