Men dominating kids’ programs on TV – And it’s getting worse

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 09/09/2025

Popular kids’ programs on TV continue to be dominated by men. And it’s getting worse, a new study shows. In 2024 popular programming, male characters outnumber female characters by 22.6 percentage points (61.3% compared with 38.7%). That is a wider gap than in 2023, when the gender gap still favoured male characters, but the difference was 15 points (57.5% compared with 42.5%), according to a report by  the Geena Davis Institute that promotes gender balance in media.

The biggest gender gap is in minor roles. In 2024 popular programming, male characters make up 65.8% of all minor characters, while female characters make up 34.2% of all characters — a 31.6-point gender gap.

Women are significantly more likely than men to be characters of colour (47.1% compared with 28.5%). Men are significantly more likely than women to be white (71.5% compared with 52.9%).

Women are significantly more likely than men to be wearing revealing clothing (9.5% compared with 3.0%).

Men are significantly more likely than women to have a job (42.4% compared with 33.3%).

When it comes to new programs for children that were made in 2024, there is an improvement. 

In 2024 new programming, 42.6% of all characters are women. This is a 1.8-point decrease from 2023 (44.4%), and a 1.9-point decrease from 2022 (44.5%). However, of all leads, 48.8% are female. 

“This is record-high, since we started collecting data on new programming in 2018. In 2023, 47.8% of lead characters were female and in 2022, 44.3% of lead characters were female”, the institute says.

The institute has ideas on how to improve representation in popular programs for kids. Among them are to amplify and publicize female-centered stories and diversify minor characters as inequalities are highest among characters cast in minor roles.