Things are search up for women in Hollywood — kind of . Last class rise to be a record one for female protagonist in film , Varietyreports . From superhero blockbuster likeCaptain Marvelto dramedies likeThe Farewell , 40 pct of 2019 ’s top - grossingfilmsfeatured distaff protagonists . That ’s up from 31 percent in 2018 , the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film reports .
What ’s more , a growing bit of studio feature article include distaff agonist ( 45 percent ) . About 55 percent of the female protagonists included in the study appear in independent pic . That ’s an melioration from last yr , Varietyreports , when independent films were almost twice as likely as studio feature article to asterisk female protagonists ( 68 pct versus 32 percent ) .
Unfortunately , the good news mostly ends there . In 2019 , women made up 34 percent of all speaking roles , a decrement of one percentage level since 2018 ( we ’re look at you , Martin Scorsese ) . Female character also tend to be untried than their male counterparts ; the majority of distaff characters in 2019 were in their twenty ( 22 percentage ) and thirty ( 31 percent ) , while the absolute majority of manly character were in their 30s ( 32 pct ) and 40s ( 26 percent ) .

The situation look even bleaker for female persona of color . Hollywood as a whole has shown negligible betterment in racial diversity since 2016 . About 68 percentage of all female character in 2019 were white , while about a fifth were disastrous , seven percent were Asian , and five percent were Latina . Those numbers were some the same in 2017 and 2018 , with svelte improvements since 2016 .
woman are taking on more leadership role behind the scenes , though . char directed12 percentof 2019 ’s highest - gross film , which is eight percent high than in2018 . An increasing number of women are also take up on roles related to production , cinematography , writing , and edit out . As more women and citizenry of color take up leadership part behind the scenes , it ’s likely that on - screen door multifariousness will increase , a report from the University of Southern California suggests .
[ h / tVariety ]