The Unstereotype Alliance has partnered with Getty Images to launch an expanded gallery of images and videos depicting women in leadership and sustainability. The gallery is designed to be a resource for the industry to elevate the representation of women in leadership and move beyond the perceived limitations of gender. The collection includes more imagery of women at the forefront of sustainability and in STEM roles reflecting UN Women’s International Women’s Day 2022 theme “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.” The gallery will continue to grow as part of the Unstereotype Alliance and Getty Images’ ongoing partnership.
Research from Getty Images and Citi’s recently launched Diversity Equity and Inclusion Toolkit further reinforced that gender stereotypes still proliferate in imagery. The findings served as the foundation for this new curated collection of images. The data reveals that:
- Women in nearly every country do not see themselves reflected accurately in advertising.
- Although women outnumber men in images overall, women are less likely to appear in scenarios related to business, leadership, and innovation than men.
- Business: 4% more men than women
- Leadership: 17% more men than women
- Innovation: 25% more men than women
- Visuals of women often focus on depicting them in roles of care or service, whether at home or at work, more often than their male counterparts.
- Chores: 112% more women than men
- Cleaning: 129% more women than men
- Working from home and parenting: 51% more women than men
- Homeschooling: 131% more women than men
- Service occupation: 123% more women than men
- White women are more likely to be depicted in popular visuals than women of color, though most of the world is not white.
- Asia and Africa represent 76% of the world’s population, indicating that most of the world’s population is not white.
- Yet white women make up 52% of popular visuals compared to only 37% for women of color (race and ethnicity are unknown for the remaining 11%)
- Race and ethnicity isn’t the only intersection of identity that is often underrepresented in visual storytelling. Women are most often depicted as young, slim, heterosexual, and not disabled.
- Approximately half of the women in popular visuals are young adults or under 30 (53%)
- Less than 1% of visuals include LGBTQ+ women
- Only 1% of visuals include women with disabilities
- Less than 1% of visuals include women with larger body types
Tristen Norman, head of creative insights for the Americas at Getty Images, said, “Women are making history every day, but there is more to be done when it comes to how we are represented and portrayed. Through this collaboration with the Unstereotype Alliance, our hope is to elevate the voices and images of female leaders around the world to inspire the next generation of change makers and move beyond perceived limitations of gender roles.”
