USING DATA SCIENCE TO UNDERSTAND GENDER GAP IN THE FILM INDUSTRY
Dima Kagan, Thomas Chesney, and Michael Fire



- Titles: 5,487,394
- Full-Length Movies: 505,380
- Actor: 24,496,030
- Actress: 15,549,871
Movies Data
Data SCIENCE
Network Science
Constructing Movie Social Networks


Constructing Movie Social Networks

Constructing Movie Social Networks
W=W+1
Challenges

Am I to understand you're still hanging
around with Dr. Emmett Brown, McFly?



Marty McFly
Lorraine McFly
George McFly




15,540
Subtitles
Cast Data
Cast Data

THE SCULLY EFFECT
- Nearly two-thirds (63%) of women who are familiar with Dana Scully say she increased their belief in the importance of STEM.
- Among women who are familiar with Scully’s character, half (50%) say Scully increased their interest in STEM.
- Entertainment media is influential in shaping life choices
THE SCULLY EFFECT: I WANT TO BELIEVE IN STEM Research by 21st Century Fox, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and J. Walter Thompson Intelligence

What can we do about it?


Relationship triangles
Change in Relationship triangles over time


Top-10 Roles Distribution


BECHDEL TEST
- The movie has to have at least two women in it,
- who talk to each other,
- about something besides a man





15,540
7,322
Subtitles
Cast Data
Cast Data
Features
Network Features





Vertex Feature
Gender Representation
Movie Feature
Actor Features




Bechdel Test Classifier

| Feature | Feature Importance |
|---|---|
| Percent of Triangles of 2 Women | 0.15797 |
| Percent of Triangles of 0 Women | 0.14502 |
| Females in Top 10 Roles | 0.13659 |
| Percent of Triangles of 3 Women | 0.12058 |
| Triangles of 3 Women | 0.0743 |
Bechdel Test Classifier

ALTERNATIVE TEST
0.8< \frac{TotalDegree_F}{TotalDegree_M} <1.2
- It is easy to pass the Bechdel-Test.
- We found that 55.8% of movies the total degree of male characters is at least twice as high as female characters.
-
A good test could be:
-
Sadly today only 12% of all movies pass this test
Thank you questions?
DIMA KAGAN (Ben-Gurion University),
THOMAS CHESNEY (Nottingham University),
MICHAEL FIRE (BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY)



ESUN2019 - USING DATA SCIENCE TO UNDERSTAND GENDER GAP IN THE FILM INDUSTRY
By Dima Kagan
ESUN2019 - USING DATA SCIENCE TO UNDERSTAND GENDER GAP IN THE FILM INDUSTRY
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