Google Recognizes the Geena Davis Institute’s Commitment to Women and Girls

Women and Girls Lead partner, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, has been selected by Google to receive the inaugural Global Impact Award. 

The Global Impact Awards support organizations using technology and innovative approaches to tackle some of the world’s toughest human challenges. The Geena Davis Institute will be one of seven organizations to receive the $1.2 million grant. The award will be used to support the development of new software to analyze gender portrayals on screen, allowing previously time-intensive research to scale globally and accelerating the positive representation of female characters in children’s media. 

Although the world’s population is more than 50 percent female, women are outnumbered by males three to one in U.S. media and five to one behind the camera. Additionally, female characters are six times more likely to be depicted in family films as partially nude with extremely tiny waists or sexually-suggestive clothing. What kids see on television at a young age has very real effects on their development and social and cultural behaviors and beliefs. These negative images contribute to increased likelihood for girls to have poor academic performance, body image issues, early sexual behavior, and less promising life and occupational choices.

This project will use automated technology to analyze how females are portrayed in children’s media. By speeding up a previously manual and time-intensive process, research findings on gender inequality can more easily scale across the world — educating people and aiding organizations that work to promote women and girls in a positive, healthy and accurate way. 

To learn more about the Google's Global Impact Awards, please click here.