Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
A research-based organization working to increase gender balance and reduce stereotyping in entertainment media
Overview
The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media is a research and advocacy organization founded by Academy Award-winning actor Geena Davis. The institute conducts extensive research on gender representation in film, television, and advertising, providing data that drives industry-wide change.
The institute's research has revealed persistent gender imbalances in screen time, speaking roles, and behind-the-camera positions. Their findings are used by studios, networks, and advocacy groups to set benchmarks and track progress toward gender parity.
How It Works
Beyond research, the institute engages directly with content creators through its See Jane initiative, which provides tools and training to help writers and producers create more balanced and complex female characters. The organization's influence extends across entertainment and media industries.
The institute's research reports, toolkits, and educational materials are available for free through their website. The organization is supported by donations and partnerships with media companies.
Who Uses It
Actors of all genders benefit from understanding the data on gender representation in entertainment. The Geena Davis Institute's research provides powerful context for the roles you encounter and the industry dynamics that shape casting. The institute has expanded its focus in recent years to include intersectional analysis examining how gender intersects with race, disability, LGBTQ identity, and age in on-screen representation. Their Spellcheck for Bias software tool, which uses artificial intelligence to analyze scripts for gender balance, represents a cutting-edge application of technology to the representation challenge.
Pricing & Plans
The Geena Davis Institute's research reports, toolkits, and educational materials are available for free through their website, with no registration or payment required for access to the published research. The See Jane initiative's resources for content creators are also free, making the institute's tools accessible to professionals at every budget level. The organization is funded through donations, corporate partnerships, and grants, allowing it to maintain free public access to its materials. Compared to commissioning independent research on gender representation, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, the institute provides ready-made data and analysis at no cost. Their Spellcheck for Bias technology has been offered through partnerships with studios and production companies, and while enterprise access may involve licensing arrangements, the underlying research findings are publicly available. For individual actors and creatives, the institute provides an extraordinary amount of research value without any financial barrier to entry.
Pros & Cons
What's Great
The institute's greatest strength is the academic rigor and credibility of its research, which is conducted in partnership with respected universities and research institutions, making the findings difficult for industry skeptics to dismiss. Geena Davis's personal involvement and name recognition give the organization unique access to industry decision-makers and media attention that amplifies the impact of its work. The See Jane initiative translates research findings into practical tools and training that content creators can immediately apply to their work, bridging the gap between data and action. The institute's focus on children's media in addition to general entertainment addresses representation patterns at the point where they have the greatest long-term impact on societal attitudes. The Spellcheck for Bias technology is a genuinely innovative tool that makes gender analysis scalable and accessible in a way that manual script review cannot match. The organization's long track record, spanning over two decades, means its longitudinal data can track trends and measure real progress over time, providing a level of historical perspective that newer organizations cannot yet offer.
What Could Be Better
The institute's primary focus is gender representation, which means it does not provide the same depth of analysis on other dimensions of diversity such as race, disability, or socioeconomic status, though intersectional analysis has increased in recent years. The research findings can take time to translate into tangible changes in the industry, and actors may find it frustrating that data demonstrating clear imbalances does not immediately result in more equitable casting. The organization does not provide direct career services, casting assistance, or mentorship for individual actors, so its value is primarily educational and contextual rather than immediately career-advancing. Some of the research is published in academic formats that may be less accessible to general audiences than more popular-style reporting. The institute's emphasis on quantitative data, while powerful, can sometimes flatten the nuanced qualitative aspects of representation that are harder to measure but equally important. The Spellcheck for Bias tool, while promising, is not yet widely available to individual content creators, limiting its practical utility for the majority of the institute's audience.
Our Recommendation
The Geena Davis Institute is recommended for every actor and content creator who wants to understand the data behind gender representation in entertainment and use that knowledge to make more informed career and creative decisions. It is particularly valuable for writers, directors, and producers who are in a position to directly influence the gender balance of their projects through casting and character development choices. Actors who want to advocate for better female representation in their professional environments will find the institute's data invaluable for making evidence-based arguments. Parents of young performers should explore the institute's children's media research to understand the representation landscape their children are entering. For those primarily interested in career advancement rather than advocacy, the research provides useful context for understanding market trends and identifying opportunities in an industry that is slowly but measurably improving its gender balance. If your primary interest is a dimension of diversity other than gender, supplement the institute's work with organizations like Color of Change Hollywood, CAPE, or disability advocacy groups for a more comprehensive perspective.
Pro Tips
Start by reading the institute's most recent flagship report to establish a baseline understanding of the current state of gender representation, then explore specific topic areas that are most relevant to your career or creative work. Use the institute's data in conversations with agents, managers, and collaborators to advocate for projects that prioritize gender-balanced casting and storytelling. If you are a writer or producer, explore the See Jane resources and consider how the institute's findings can inform your character development and casting decisions from the earliest stages of a project. Share the institute's research with colleagues in your professional network, as awareness is the necessary precursor to action, and many industry professionals are simply unaware of the data. Follow the institute on social media and subscribe to their newsletter to stay current on new research releases, events, and industry partnerships that may create opportunities for engagement. When evaluating potential projects, use the institute's benchmarks as one factor in your decision-making, asking whether the production's approach to gender representation reflects the kind of entertainment you want to be part of creating.