Mass Communicator: International Journal of Communication Studies
  • Year: 2025
  • Volume: 19
  • Issue: 2

Hollywood and Gender Inequality: An Examination of the Underrepresentation of Women Directors and Actors

1Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Asutosh College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

2Under Graduate Student, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Asutosh College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Online Published on 15 January, 2026.

Abstract

Hollywood, despite being the oldest film industry in the world, continues to be plagued by issues such as gender inequality and a lack of diversity. To analyze the gender inequality in the representation of women, this research observes in the top-five grossing movies directed by men and the top-five grossing movies with female directors in 2019 with the Bechdel Test.

Correlational Research Design is also used to determine whether a person’s gender affects their annual earnings or their representation on both sides of the camera.

The results showed that a wide disparity continues to exist between the two genders and that the representation of women and focus on female characters are improved when a woman is directing the film.

They suggest that while things have improved for women in Hollywood, the profound positive shift that has been predicted by industry observers has not come to pass, and the industry lacks a will to change.

Keywords

Hollywood, Gender Inequality, Underrepresentation, Film industry, Women