Good News: In 2016, Movies Had More Female Protagonists

With the Academy Awards set for this weekend, many film buffs are taking a look at the past year's cinematic accomplishments. If you want to impress everyone at your Oscar viewing party, throw in this tidbit: in 2016, films had more female protagonists that in 2015. A study conducted by San Diego State University's Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that 29% of protagonists in 2016's top 100 grossing films were women. In 2015, that figure was 22%. Thank that rise to roles like Felicity Jones' Jyn Erso in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — the top-grossing film of 2016 — as well as Emily Blunt in The Girl On The Train and the amazing women of Hidden Figures. That's great news, but the New York Times adds that there's a startling figure in the center's research. While the number of female protagonists rose, the number of speaking roles actually declined by 1%. In addition, the center looked at women minorities in film and found mixed results. The number of Asian female characters went up from 3% to 6%. Black female characters in movies jumped 1% from 13% to 14%. But the number of Latina characters dropped. In 2015, the stat showed 4%. In 2016, it dropped to 3%. The Times also notes that when female directors or writers are behind a film, the numbers change dramatically. When men direct or write a film, the protagonist is female about 18% of the time. When women take on the same roles, that figure jumps to 57%.