For Women, It’s Past Time to Be Seen

For Women, It’s Past Time to Be Seen

Across media and business, the disparity in representation for women only grows when you view the gender gap through a multicultural lens. The gap still exists despite knowing that women are more likely to carry more of the household responsibilities, homeschooling and childcare responsibilities, make the daily purchasing decisions, be less financially secure, and feel more isolated. The pandemic has only compounded the pressure women are facing today, threatening to roll back the progress we’ve made.

This year, we #choosetochallenge the gender stereotypes and messages that are shaping these cultural norms, and we are inviting everyone to do the same. Our goal is to help the media industry creative inclusive content, powered by diverse content creators not just because it matters ethically, but also because it matters to the viewers who are ultimately your consumers.

The Female Economy

Globally, women’s engagement in the labor market lags behind men by 23 percentage points according to the World Economic Forum. Yet, women’s spending power and influence should not be underestimated.

Binoculars

IT’S TIME TO BE SEEN

Representation matters. The way women are portrayed on screen can affect how they are treated and understood, as well how they see themselves. In the workplace, lack of senior visibility means lack of job advancement, fewer corporate resources and lower financial security.

Women make up 52% of the U.S. population, yet they only have 38% of the share of screen. The visibility of women differs across platforms, but streaming video-on-demand comes closest to delivering gender parity at 48.9% representation. A deeper dive into gender by identity groups shows that the platform represented LGBTQ, East Asian, Black and White Females at or above parity. Considering the growing adoption of streaming across all age groups, these diverse programs are able to increasingly wield more power to influence the way people think, how they form their identity, and what they think of others. Therefore, it’s not only important that those in the media represent the diversity of our world on screen, it’s imperative they do it accurately.

While there have been more roles for women on TV that break traditional stereotypes, there’s still plenty of work to be done to show them in more collaborative, leadership and financially independent themes. The prominent narratives featuring women are still more likely to be centered around household life and friends such as friends, husbands, fights and arguments, houses, and family life.

HOW TO REACH WOMEN

Women are savvy consumers of news, information and other media across devices. They also make up 45% of all podcast consumers over-indexing in podcasts about family, health, the arts, true crime and more. No matter what media they’re consuming, truth, transparency and real representation matter.

Learn why at Nielsen, we’re choosing to challenge >>

See Why At Nielsen, We #Choosetochallenge