Wimmin Winning

In a western world, where unofficial quotas are all (in certain woke agencies, such as universities), and equal outcomes by gender, race and religion are now a requirement, regardless of any reference to common sense (as opposed to the meritocracy we used to live in) ......

Countess Elisabeth Nádasdy
(Ingrid Pitt) From Countess Dracula

 .... it should perhaps be no surprise that the University of California, turned its woke eye to film industry (where outcomes should be guided by audiences, not by woke political correctness, but we know that is not the case anymore).

The primary object of the 2017 studies attention, was gender. It looked at the 100 of the most successful movies of the previous three years, and determined that there was in general, a significant gender disparity in strength of roles between men and women ... (Quelle Surprise!!). 

• In the 100 movies examined, women only had 36% screen time.
• In the Oscar winning movies women only had 32% screen time.
• When this was only speaking parts, then women dropped to just 27% of screen time.

But when the films were examined by genre, then there was one genre which bucked the trend, and that outlier was Horror (or Sci-fi  / Horror thrillers) movies. In these, women had 53% of on screen time. So to the surprise of all those who had dismissed these movies as misogynistic, and not worthy of recognition, they were found to be the most consistent in pushing strong female characters onto the screen, and with them often driving the plot along. 

The Hammer Horror movies of the 1960's and 1970's featured many strong female roles, such as Countess Elisabeth Nádasdy (Ingrid Pitt) in Countess Dracula (inspired by the Elizabeth Bathory story).

• Playing Laurie Strode helped Jamie Lee Curtis's career in Halloween (1978), and in all the character appeared in 9 of the 13 movies.
• Playing Annie Wilkes in Misery (1990) won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Kathy Bates. 

Other strong characters such as Clarice M Starling (Jodie Foster who won an Oscar, and Julianne Moore), and Ellen Ripley from the Sci-fi Alien franchise (Sigourny Weaver was nominated for Best Actress Oscar), come to mind .... I might point out that had they turned their examination of films further back in time, then they would have bumped into the strong film noir roles or other leading parts played by actresses such as Gloria Swanson, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, and Katherine Hepburn to find that strong women's roles, are often played by strong women. 

Perhaps there are reasons why women's parts are weaker in many movie genre's these days, too many action epics, woke casting, or maybe the actresses are not as strong? Maybe, just maybe, film critics and Oscar committee members should not be so sniffy about horror thrillers, when handing out awards in the future.