Gender status inertia in biographical films: an overview of the motion picture industry from 1900 to 2017

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper documents the change and reproduction of gender status in the motion picture industry by discussing patterns in protagonist choice and authorship of biographical films produced from 1900 to 2017. The results rely on a quantitative analysis of all 4,539 films on the IMDb platform labeled with the “Biography” tag that portray an individual main character in the selected years. We find that men-only filmmaking teams have been remarkably consistent from 1900 onward in their choice of male subjects, while mixed and women-only teams have driven an increase in the central representation of women as figures whose life is worthy of narration and remembrance. Therefore, the recently increased involvement of women as directors has significantly advanced the symbolic recognition of women in public cinematographic discourse. Our findings document the emergence of a transitional period in the biographical movie industry in which the reproduction of gender status asymmetries coexists with an increased participation of women in filmmaking.