Occupational Segregation and Gender Representations at Cinema

Applied research in the past years about gender representations on cinema has been typically supporting the gender theory. In fact, while occupational gender segregation has been always a strong feature of the gender theory it has been depicted worldwide in the movies as well. However as shown in the films, professional occupations had been distributed unevenly between male and female characters to a much greater extent in relation to the actual percentages of the real world.

After reviewing the data of sixty top box office films our study aims to investigate “occupational gender segregation” as presented by those films in comparison with the actual unequal distribution of men and women in the occupational structure, through a historical point of view. Finally we aim to surmise the upcoming trends of the film directors concerning gender representation in relation to labor, hoping that the development of a more realistic male and female professional role casting at cinema in the future could move a step forward to the democratization of society. 

The publication of this paper has been partly supported by the University of Piraeus Research Center.