Women in Fiction: Bechdel-Wallace Test Results for the Highest-Grossing Movies of the Last Four Decades

The representation of women in cultural products is a main concern to the social sciences and humanities and a topic that many citizens care about. We analyzed female characters in the 30 worldwide highest grossing movies per year, for the past 40 years, amounting to 1,200 movies. Our study was based on the Bechdel-Wallace test (BWT, Bechdel test): Are two or more named women present in a movie, and do they talk to each other about something besides a man? We used data from an impromptu online citizen science project (bechdeltest.com) and complemented the data with analyses of movies that were not covered by this database. Our results show that only half of the most popular movies (49.58%) pass the test. Almost all movies (9531%) pass the reverse BWT (movies featuring named men who talk to each other about something besides a woman), as indicated by an analysis of a subset of 341 movies. Time trends indicate that the percentage of movies passing the BWT is on the rise for the past 10 years. The probability of a movie passing the BWT and respective changes over time are related to the movies' setting (alternate vs. contemporary world), audience evaluations (IMDb ratings), production budget, and revenue. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Automated summary

This study analyzes the representation of female characters in the top 30 highest-grossing movies worldwide for the past 40 years using the Bechdel-Wallace test. The results show that only half of these popular movies pass the test, while almost all movies pass the reverse test. Time trends indicate an increase in the percentage of movies passing the test over the past 10 years.