How Balanced is Gender Representation in Media? (2017–2018)

Revelations about the abuse of power by men have been manifold over the past year. In particular, it has become clear that the media business suffers from some of the worst sexism of any industry.

How has this lopsided power imbalance between men and women been reflected in the media that we consume? I set out to answer one part of this question by gathering the latest data on as many forms of media as I could find. Mainly, I wanted to know, can we measure gender imbalances at the top end of media industries? Among the highest performers in books, music, movies and more, what does gender representation look like in 2017–2018?

The results are unsurprising and somewhat depressing. Nevertheless, they provide glimmers of hope that the world may be changing.

Representation in Music, Fiction, and Movies

Despite women being dominant when it comes to making number one hit songs, in the last year, they are rather underrepresented on the Billboard charts. The below plot is ordered by the songs which spent the most time on the Billboard Hot-100. Female artists are in red, and male in blue.