About the Issue
- Women hold only 3% of clout positions in the mainstream media (telecommunications, entertainment, publishing and advertising).
- Women comprise 7% of directors and 13% of film writers in the top 250 grossing films.
- The United States is 90th in the world in terms of women in national legislatures.
- Women hold 17% of the seats in the House of Representatives (the equivalent body in Rwanda is 56.3% female).
- Women are merely 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs.
- About 25% of girls will experience teen dating violence.
- The number of cosmetic surgical procedures performed on youth 18 or younger more than tripled from 1997 to 2007.
- Among youth 18 and younger, liposuctions nearly quadrupled between 1997 and 2007 and breast augmentations increased nearly six-fold in the same 10-year period.
- 65% of American women and girls report disordered eating behaviors.
Sources for Miss Representation documentary stats (full list of stats coming soon)
Resources and Additional Information by Subject Matter
Media: Consumption, Literacy and Advocacy
Gender: Representation in the Media and Sexualization
Self-Esteem, Abuse and Body Image
Leadership: Women’s Leadership, Leadership Development and Media Advocacy
Recommended readings
From Jennifer Siebel Newsom and the MissRepresentation.org team.
Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes The Way We Think And Feel
By Jean Kilbourne
Closing the Leadership Gap: Add Women, Change Everything
By Marie C. Wilson
Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture
By Ariel Levy
Globalizing Feminisms, 1789-1945
Edited By Karen Offen
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
By Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
In a Different Voice
By Carol Gilligan
The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It
By M. Gigi Durham, Ph.D.
The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women And How All Men Can Help
By Jackson Katz
Notes from the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and What It Will Take for A Woman to Win
By Anne E. Kornblut
Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV
by Jennifer L. Pozner, Women In Media & News
Sexism in America: Alive, Well, and Ruining Our Future
By Barbara J. Berg, Ph.D.
The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything
By Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress
Women World Leaders
By Laura A. Liswood