Ausgeblendet

Women are underrepresented in German film and television. For every woman over the age of 30 there are about two men, and over the age of 50 there are even three. The role clichés - pretty young woman, strong, clever man - seem cemented. Women are not only less visible, they are also seen for shorter periods of time and have significantly fewer words. These are the results of a study on the topic "Audiovisual Diversity" initiated by actress Maria Furtwängler and conducted by the University of Rostock. These are the first resilient and representative figures in decades to show the imbalance in the presence and role of women in the media. For this purpose, a total of 3,500 hours of television and 800 German cinema films were evaluated in 2016. Men explain the world to us: they are the experts, the journalists, speakers and game show hosts. The inequality in children's television is even greater: here there are three boys for every girl character and drawn animals and fantasy characters are predominantly male.