 I'm Max Jacobson Gonzalez of ITU, the United Nations Specialized Agency for Information and Communication Technologies. And I'm joined today by Gina Davis, Academy Award-winning Hollywood actor, founder of the Gina Davis Institute on Gender and Media, and internationally recognized for her advocacy of women and girls. So an enormously warm welcome to you, Gina. It's great to have you with us again. Thank you, Max. It's great to be reconnected with you and the ITU. Thank you. Now in 2012, you received the ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award in recognition of your leadership and dedication towards promoting ICTs as a means of empowering women and girls. And you were named the ITU Special Envoy for Women and Girls in the field of technology as part of the ITU Girls in ICT campaign that highlights the empowering role that technology can play in the lives of women and girls. A little bit of background on your institute for our viewers and business. That Gina Davis Institute is a research-based organization working within the media and entertainment industry to engage, educate, and influence the need for gender balance, reducing stereotyping, and creating a wide variety of female characters for entertainment. Now your institute's report on representations of women's STEM characters in media STEM, being science, technology, engineering, and maths was recently quoted in ITU News. I wanted to talk, perhaps maybe talk a little bit about some of the key findings. Has the situation of women STEM characters in the media in media and film changed since that report was released? And also, why does the portrayal of women scientists and engineers in films and in the media matter? Well, our research found that only a quarter of scientists and engineers in the United States are female in real life. And we know that media plays a contributing role. For example, STEM characters were rarely featured in leading roles. And when they were, male STEM characters were moderately, but significantly more likely than women STEM characters to be the lead characters. And a majority of women STEM characters were shown as working in life sciences, but men STEM characters were more likely than women characters to be shown as engineers, as physical scientists, and in computing operations. So when girls in their formative years don't see female characters on screen as biochemists, software developers, engineers, or statisticians, they are less likely to imagine or pursue those career paths for themselves. However, when girls do see women in STEM in media, it has a significant impact. And that's why shows like mission unstoppable are so important. Increasing media depictions of women in STEM is easy to do, and it provides a big bang for the buck. And our tagline, I don't know if you know it, but it says if she can see it, she can be it. You mentioned mission unstoppable, perhaps this would be a good opportunity to talk about it. Tell us a little bit about what that's about. So mission unstoppable is more than a television series. It's a social media movement meeting these young girls in the places they're most likely drawn to, such as Twitter and Instagram and TikTok and Twitch. And the content rages from meeting greets with women role models in STEM to how scientists use hormones to be able to tell that someone is in love and even experiments in making temporary hair dye or lava lamps at home. And what's the connection that you see between the STEM fields and social media and how important is it to cultivate that going forward? You've been involved in film and media for many years. Would you say that there's a conscious effort to change the numbers and images of women characters as scientists and engineers? Well, yes, I mean, based on our research, there is a solid movement to improve overall representation. As we've seen from our film and TV studies in 2019 and 2020, we have actually achieved gender parity for female lead characters in the top grossing family films and the top kids TV shows. We've seen more TV shows being developed with STEM characters, but obviously we need many more. And in what ways can media portrayals of women characters and science professionals influence and inspire as well as help to inform girls for future professional roles, do you think? Well, I mean, we judge our value to society by seeing ourselves reflected in the media and we very much respond to what the characters are doing. Oh, I could do that. If that character is doing that, I could do that. And we don't have enough real life female STEM role models to saturate the minds of young girls. So we really need them in fiction. And these characters have proved to be incredibly influential. We did a study of specifically the character Scully in the X files and found that 58% of women currently employed in STEM fields cite her as the reason they went into those fields. Your institute's research about media portrayals of women characters in STEM fields address both the percentages of women characters in different STEM fields and the relative traits of those characters. What do you think would have a greater impact on influencing girls and women to enter STEM fields, increasing the numbers of women STEM characters or improving how women STEM characters are portrayed? Both, actually. And what happens on screen can play out in the real world. So using fictional media to inspire girls' curiosity about STEM is one way. And of course, building a pipeline of engaging more girls and women to pursue STEM education and careers is equally important. So what concrete actions can content creators put in place to support and promote strong female characters and role models at STEM, do you think? Right, well, clearly by infusing their content with STEM characters and thinking more creatively about STEM, many shows only have STEM characters when it's a medical show or a crime show. But the reality is there are opportunities for STEM characters in pretty much any situation, comedy or drama or environments that have the ocean or a forest. It doesn't have to be limited at all. And what about the future? What are some of Jeanette Davis' Institute's plans for the future? Well, I'm so excited to be executive producer for that show, Mission Unstoppable, as I said. It airs on CBS on Saturday mornings and features Miranda Cosgrove as the host. And we're so excited to be going into another season and it takes a fun look at the introduction of girls to STEM activities and really interesting scientists. It's more than a television series. It's a media movement. And we really find that girls are responding incredibly to it. Finally, I wanted to ask you, if you could go back and talk to yourself as a girl, what advice would you give in regard to the future of technology and how to engage with it? Oh, you know, I don't think any of us had any idea. I certainly didn't, at least, where technology was going to take us. It's quite incredible and impressive and it's changed our lives so utterly. I guess I would just have to say be prepared for something very, very important to come along that will change the way you look at everything. But, you know, back then, there was such little interest in educating girls in far as STEM careers go and being inspired to pursue those careers. And what's the most rewarding thing for you about having created this institute, do you think? I think it's seen progress. You know, we've been doing it about 15 years now and we can actually measure progress. That's what's great about research is you can get the data and find out what impact you're having and to have the lead characters in both kids' TV and movies reach parity in those 15 years has been incredibly rewarding. We still want to work on, you know, the whole world, the fictitious world that's being created and, you know, and improve that. But, and also there's a lot of progress that needs to still be made for characters of color with different abilities and age is another factor. But I'm very excited that we are seeing progress. I know I did say finally before and I was just curious, will you be looking at taking on any roles that might encourage girls to take on STEM careers? I mean, I'm talking about in your role as an actor. Right, right. Well, you know, I haven't got any currently lined up, but it's a big goal of mine. You know, I'd love to be able to actually do it. I have an idea for a character for me in the Transformers movies as a scientist. And I think I'm going to pitch them that idea. That's great. Well, I'm sure. Well, if anybody's listening out there, you heard it here. But thank you. Thank you so much indeed, Gina. And that was really wonderful. And we look forward very much to catching up with you again soon. And a big thank you to all our viewers and listeners. If you've been listening to this interview as a podcast, please don't forget to subscribe to ITU Podcasts on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more. If you've been watching this, please do subscribe to our ITU YouTube channel, which is YouTube.com forward slash ITU telecommunication. And for more information, please visit our website at www.ITU.int. And Gina, a last word from you. Oh, I want to thank everybody also for watching and listening. And I'm very happy to see you, Max. It's really great to reconnect with you. And I do hope we talk again soon. And so do I. Thank you very much indeed. I'm Max Jacobson Gonzalez. This has been an ITU digital production.