Sex Roles, VoL 23, Nos.

5/6, 1990

Portrayals of Women in Prime-Time Network

Television: Some Demographic Characteristics
Donald M. Davis
The University of Georgia

This paper examines demographic variables to create a partial picture o f cur-

rent portrayals o f women on network television. All prime-time programs
for all networks served as the information base. The findings were that f e w
changes had been made in the portrayals o f women f rom the 1970s to the
1980s in terms o f observable demographic characteristics.

Within the last four decades, television has established itself as the dominant
American mass medium. More than 90% of homes have television and the
majority of those homes have more than one set (Nielsen, 1989). Television
viewing in 1989 reached an all time high of seven and one quarter hours per
home per day (Nielsen, 1989). Students between the ages of 5 and 18 will
see more of television than the classroom by the time they graduate, and
by their mid-20s they will be watching television as the third major time-
consuming activity of any given day, after work and sleep. Television is per-
vasive.
Television is credited with being the great socializer in American socie-
ty. It teaches us what is believed important; it teaches children how to be-
have; it teaches immigrants how to assimilate (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1963;
Comstock et al., 1978; Gerbner & Gross, 1976; Greenberg, 1980). But, it
may also teach violence (Bandura et al., 1963; Berkowitz, 1973), fearfulness
(Gerbner & Gross, 1976; Gerbner & Signorielli, 1979), cynicism (Meyrowitz,
1983, 1985), and sex role stereotyping (Atwood et al., 1986; Durkin, 1985).
Children learn what behaviors the society considers appropriate not just
from Sesame Street, but also from Hunter, and Bugs Bunny. In fact, just
what children learn from programs and commercials has been the cause of
considerable consternation during the past two decades. For example, is it
all right for persons "in the right" to solve their problems through the use
325
0360-0025/90/0900-325506.00/0 © 199o Plenum Publishing Corporation
326 Davis

of fists and weapons (most action-adventure shows)? Are ex-prisoners cor-

rect in using illegal actions to thwart the plans o f an elected adversary (The
Dukes o f Hazard)? Is the road runner or Wile E. Coyote ever really injured,
and do young viewers ever emulate their actions?
The raising of these and other issues in the late 1960s and 1970s led
to some changes in the nature of television programming, not just during
the so-called family hour (8:00-9:00 PM), but throughout television sched-
ules. Complaints from minority organizations led to the presence of larger
numbers of Black and other minority characters in television (Hinton, Seg-
gar, Northcott, & Fontes, 1974; U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1977).
Although criticized initially as token efforts, shows such as I Spy and Julia
paved the way for increased minority visibility on television. Italian-Americans
contended that network shows often portrayed them as underworld hood-
lums, and by 1975 the word Mafia was not heard coming from the small
screen. Similarly, Orientals had tired o f being seen as smiling launderers,
Chicanos wanted an end to the bandito stereotype, and homosexuals were
beginning to organize protests against stereotypical effeminate images. Tel-
evision program content changed along the lines desired by protesting groups,
as producers, network executives, writers, and directors worked to avoid
offending any potential viewer (who might also be a consumer of advertised
products) and as pressure on the Federal Communication Commission trans-
lated into action at the standards and practices departments of the networks
(Cole & Oettinger, 1978; Turow, 1984). However, there was another large
and potentially angry group with a bone to pick with programmers-- women.
Studies from the 1950s (Head, 1954), 1960s (DeFleur, 1964), and 1970s
(Gerbner & Gross, 1974; McNeil, 1975; Tedesco, 1974; Turow, 1974) showed
that men outnumbered women on television by two to one, even though
51.2070 o f the general population was female. In addition, women were por-
trayed as overly emotional (Busby, 1975; Deaux, 1976), dependent (Busby,
1975; Tedesco, 1974), less capable as planners (Sternglanz and Serbin, 1974),
dominated by men (Lemon, 1977), and less intelligent (Busby, 1975). As with
other groups, circumstances of this sort led to tension between women's
groups and the networks. And, as with other groups, some changes were
made.
A new breed of female shows came on the screen in the 1970s. These
shows starred or featured women, and placed them into situations that varied
from the traditional homemaker role. Comedies included Mary Tyler
Moore, Phyllis, and Rhoda, while dramas like Policewoman and Charlie's
Angels were developed. But upon closer analysis these shows were not neces-
sarily the departures they at first had appeared to be. In Policewoman for
example, Pepper (the title character) was often at a loss when it came to pro-
tecting herself. In many episodes she required the help of a male friend or
Portrayals of Women in Television 327

co-worker to rescue her from danger. Charlie's Angels had to solve a curi-
ous number of crimes in spas, beaches, and other settings that required them
to dress provocatively. Were they serious detectives or were they bathing beau-
ties? Mary Tyler Moore was one of the f'trst o f the independent female charac-
ters, but she was rarely at ease in superordinate positions, was infrequently
assertive, and called her boss "Mr. Grant," while all other characters referred
to him as " L o u . " Phyllis was an insecure character who alternately became
helpless and shrewish, and succeeded in alienating her daughter, friends, and
viewers. Rhoda was also played as an insecure character who ultimately found
some measure o f security in a marriage which then failed. Interestingly,
studies at the end o f that decade found that women appeared no more fre-
quently as speaking characters than in the 1960s, and their roles were not
much improved when one considered factors like intelligence, independence,
and centrality to plot (Greenberg, 1980; Tuchman et al., 1979).
The present study is designed to provide an updated look at women
in prime time.

METHODS

In order to form the base o f shows to be examined, each network's en-

tire weekly schedule was taped during the spring of 1987. The individual shows
were then placed into four genres: comedy, action-adventure, drama, and
magazine. The comedy category included 28 half-hour situation comedies.
Action-adventure accounted for 24 shows o f one hour each. Initially police
shows were separated from detective and adventure shows, but the categories
were merged due to the similarity o f plot lines. Drame contained 12 one-
hour shows, about half o f which were o f the soap opera f o r m . Included also
was the dramatically oriented hospital show St. Elsewhere. Since magazine
shows such as 60 Minutes and 20/20 contained no plots or continuing cast,
they were eliminated from the study. In all, 50 hours o f network program-
ming were selected for coding, composite week representing the three
networks' complete schedules. Programs on the Fox network were not in-
cluded in the study as that network programmed only 5 hours per week dur-
ing that season.
Since many characters are peripheral to the main plot o f any given show,
appear in crowds, or appear briefly, only characters with one or more lines
o f dialogue were considered for the study. Coding was subsequently com-
pleted for 894 characters.
Coding was independently completed by two different coders, each o f
whom had received 5 hours o f instruction on the coding procedure. Inter-
coder reliability scores were derived from a 10°70 subsample coded indepen-
328 Davis

dently (Holsti, 1969). The percentage of perfect agreement ranged from a

low o f 84°70 for marital status to a high of 100070 for sex. Most reliability
estimates fell into the 88-94070 range.

RESULTS

The first point o f interest is one o f the simplest--character incidence

by sex. In a 1954 study o f television drama programs, Head found that males

T a b l e I. P e r c e n t a g e s a n d C h i - S q u a r e Significance for
D e m o g r a p h i c Variables ~
Percentages
Variables Male Female Significance
Genre a
Action-adventure 70.8 29.2
Comedy 57.2 42.8
Drama 64.1 35.9
Age b
17 9.2 12.9
18-34 37.6 53.8
35-49 38.4 21.2
50 14.8 12.1
H a i r color c
Brown 40.2 12.1
Black 34.5 24.1
Red/auburn 2.1 11.2
Blonde 6.8 35.7
Grey 13.9 2.1
Other 2.5 .2
M a r i t a l status a
Married 11.5 19.3
Single 29.1 50.1
Indeterminat~ 59.4 30.6
Parental status e
Parent 11.7 19.5
Nonparent 17.2 32.1
Indeterminate 71.1 48.4

P r o v o c a t i v e dress" 6.8 24.3

~X2(2, N = 894) = 23.86, p < .001.
b X 2 ( 3 , N = 894) = 32.48, p < .001.
cx2(5 , N = 894) = 157.24, p < .001.
dX2(2, N = 894) = 56.42, p < .001.
eX2(2 , N = 894) = 46.37, p < .001.
YX2(6, N = 894) = 30.62, p < .001.
*p < .05.
**p < .01.
***p < .001.
Portrayals of Women in Television 329

accounted for 68% o f all characters. Later studies o f incidence showed little
change. Tedesco (1974) found 720/0 o f m a j o r characters to be male while
McNeil (1975) found 60070 males in comedy, 74070 males in drama, and 69%
males overall. In the present study 57°70 of characters in comedies were male
and 43% female. In action-adventure, 70.8°/0 o f characters were male and
29.2% female. The chi-square test yielded significant results for males and
females across genres [X2(2, N = 894) = 23.86, p < .0001]. For all charac-
ters taken together, 65.4% were male and 34.6% female.
C o m p u t e d chi-square for the various categories were all significant for
m a l e / f e m a l e incidence (see Table I). Other variables that will be discussed
in this paper include age, hair color, marital status, and parental status.
Characters were placed into one o f four categories by age: 17 and un-
der, 18-34, 35-49, and 50 and older. The chi-square test yielded significant
results for males and females across age categories [X2(3, N = 894) = 32.48,
p < .0001]. There was little difference by sex in the youngest and oldest
categories, but there was significant variation in the two middle categories.
Overall, 37.6% o f men and 53.8% o f w o m e n fell into the 18-34 category,
while 38.4% o f men and 21.20/0 of w o m e n were in the 35-49 group. This
trend was even more pronounced in the action-adventure genre, where 42.6%
o f men and 75.8070 o f w o m e n were 18-34 and 39.70/0 o f men and 7.3% o f
women were 35-49.
Hair colors were classified according to the following categories: brown,
black, r e d / a u b u r n , blonde, grey, and other. The brown category held simi-
lar percentages of men and women, but significant variation occurred in the
other classifications [X2(5, N = 894) -- 157.24, p < .001]. W o m e n were four
and one-half times more likely to have r e d / a u b u r n hair and almost five times
more likely to be blonde than men. While women in the general population
have commercial encouragement to color their hair blonde, the 35.7% of
television females who are blonde outstrip the general female population by
more than two to one (Clairol Corporation, 1986). Men, on the other hand,
were more than four times m o r e likely to have grey hair and 40% more like-
ly to have black hair. (These trends were exaggerated in action-adventure
shows.)
Marital status was coded by placing characters into married, single, and
indeterminate categories. No special weight was given to divorce, widow-
hood, or multiple marriages. Similar percentages o f men and women were
known to be married (11.5% and 19.3%, respectively). The m a j o r differ-
ence was in the indeterminate category. The marital status o f men was n o t
known in 59.4% of the cases, but only 30.6% of female characters were clas-
sified as indeterminate. The chi-square test yielded significant results for male
and female loadings in marital categories [X2(2, N = 894) = 56.42, p <
.0001].
330 Davis

The same trend was evident in parental status. While similar percen-
tages o f characters in each sex were clearly labeled as parents, men were sig-
nificantly more likely to be in the indeterminate category [x~(2, N = 894)
= 46.37, p < .0001].
Provocative dress was based upon nonsex-specific categories such as
nightwear, undergarments, swimwear, tight clothing, and the like. W o m e n
were about four times more likely to be provocatively dressed than male
characters. The difference score was significant [x2(6, N = 894) = 30.62,
p < .001].

DISCUSSION

The results are, in m a n y ways, surprising. While changes have been

made in television's treatment of Blacks, Hispanics, and others (Turow, 1984),
little change has occurred in portrayals o f women. They still turn up in the
same proportions as they did in the 1950s (Head, 1954) and the 1970s (Te-
desco, 1974). Does that mean that there is a shortage of female actors? Not
likely. Does it mean that women are inherently less interesting as charac-
ters? Also not likely.
One explanation may be that creative control is still wielded by men
in the television industry, and they write, produce, and direct what they un-
derstand b e s t - - t h e male point of view. Dee (1983) found that over 90°20 of
television writers were white males. They may have more problems empathiz-
ing with, and writing about, women.
Character age ranges in this study show trends similar to those found
by earlier researchers (Gerbner & Signorielli, 1979; National Organization
o f Women, 1972). W o m e n tend to be younger than men by about 10 years.
Television women apparently lose their utility after age 35, but reappear in
equal proportion to men in the 50 and over category, when they are cast as
character actresses. The television female's existence still seems to be largely
a function o f her youth and beauty. Males, however, increase in their screen
value and their numbers increase in the 35-49 age group. Perhaps for them
age is viewed as synonymous with wisdom and being distinguished.
Support for the television value of the beautiful, youthful woman comes
f r o m the hair color data as well. While hair colors are evenly distributed
between sexes within races, television characters' hair colors show specific
trends. Men fall into the traditional black and brown and grey categories,
while women tend to be more blonde and red/auburn. Here again, the tele-
vislon w o m a n is reflective of more traditional cultural definitions of beauty
and femininity.
Portrayals of Women in Television 331

The portrait developed here is of the young, attractive, and sexy fe-
male who is more ornamental in many shows than functional. For example,
the episode o f M i a m i V i c e coded for this study had 14 speaking characters, all
male. There were two female characters with more than three minutes o f
screen time, but neither spoke. Both were ornamental girl friends o f male
episodic characters.
The marital and parental data also point to a different treatment o f
male and female characters. W o m e n are much more d e f i n e d in their roles
where men are much more indeterminate. Male mystery is in the area o f as-
sociation, whereas the mystery in female characters is often based upon sen-
suousness. The lack o f definition allows male characters much more freedom
of movement and behavior. As McNeil (1975) pointed out, this trend seems to
suggest that a woman's marital and parental status is more "worthy o f note"
(p. 263), thus reinforcing traditional family functions while a man's status
in those areas is o f less dramatic importance.
The surprise in this study lies in its consistences with past studies.
Minority groups seem to have been beneficiaries o f somewhat improved tel-
evision portrayals at least in terms o f incidence. The data from this study,
for example, showed Blacks comprising 12.4070 o f characters, roughly equal
to the 12.9070 projected in the population by the U.S. Bureau o f the Census
(1987). Women, however, have not shown similar improvement over past
underrepresentation. While television as socializer seems to have changed
its teachings about many groups, many of the demographics related to women
suggest that traditional roles are still basic to female portrayals. While many
o f society's institutions have moved forward with respect to women, televi-
sion may be lagging behind, at least as evidenced by demographic variables.

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