Challenging Gender Roles: An Analysis of Female Characters with STEM Occupations in Disney Animated Moviee

Gender inequality is a pressing problem in our society. A few reasons for this problem are traditional values, biases, discriminations, the underrepresentation of women in certain jobs, and the representation of gender stereotypes in media. Using stereotypes in media can influence peoples, and especially children's, socialization process and career aspirations. Movies influence children the most. In cinema, males usually have more speaking roles than females. The few females who have speaking roles are usually stereotyped. Stereotyping has caused occupational segregation. STEM fields are traditionally male dominated. In media females are also underrepresented as STEM professionals. The representation of female STEM professionals in the media has the power to shape people’s view on women participating in these fields. Since Disney is the most popular children’s movie production company. it is interesting to research the representation of female scientists in Disney animated movies. To answer the central research question “How are females working in STEM occupations represented in animated Disney movies?”, a content analysis on Disney movies that included female scientists was performed. The Disney movies analyzed in this research are Big Hero 6, WALL-E, Atlantis, and Tarzan. In all these movies, males dominated. Thus, women were underrepresented. The female STEM professionals in these movies were not in the lead of a research, nor did they have leadership or decision-making roles. However, female STEM characters from Disney movies were not represented as stereotypical females. All female characters rejected domestication and thus were not portrayed as traditional women. All female characters analyzed did not only have stereotypical feminine characteristics, but also stereotypical masculine characteristics. This research helps to identify gender stereotypes associated with female STEM professionals in animated movies. Understanding how these females are portrayed is helpful in examining the impact of media on young viewers’ attitudes and career aspirations. This information is needed to break down gender stereotypes that keep girls from choosing a career in STEM. This research contributes to raising awareness about gender representation. A suggestion for further research could be to look at gender representation in various media forms for other male-dominated occupations.