Women Underrepresented in Groups

22 Tropes 19 Movies
Table Of Contents

Explanation of Conservative Trope

We don't even need to write anything here. Just think about all the major movie trailers you've seen over the years. Women are far more underrepresented on screen. It's much better these days but still very much slanted.

Main Description

In every day movies or TV shows, women are systematically underrepresented in situations and roles that could go either way. But in addition to that, many movies in particular are historical in nature. History around the world is dominated by men and so movies about history will be dominated by men. You can't have a "band of sisters" fighting World War 2 or a woman play a past American President for example.

Conservative Trope Examples

  • Kingsman The Secret Service (2014) | Group of Men With a "Token" Woman
    Roxy (Sophie Cookson) is the only woman Kingsman to graduate after the other women candidates were killed off within minutes during training.
  • Too Big to Fail (2011) | Group of Men With a "Token" Woman
    The federal government sets up a meeting with CEOs of the nine most prominent banks (nine men) plus Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen (William Hurt), Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (Paul Giamatti), president at the time of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Timothy Geithner (Billy Crudup) and Chairman of the FDIC Sheila Bair played by a far less known actor (Patricia Randell).
    Staff Aside
    This is based on real life. The male to female bias is historically accurate. William Hurt refers to the chairman of the FDIC's powers to threaten the CEOs but the actor portraying her never actually says a word during the key meeting in the scene.
  • The Hangover Part II (2011) | Group of Men Without any Women
    Phil, Stu and Alan search for Stu's future brother-in-law Teddy with some help from Mr. Chow.
  • The Hangover (2009) | Group of Men Without any Women
    Phil, Stu and Alan search for their lost friend Doug.
  • Live Free or Die Hard (2007) | Group of Men With a "Token" Woman
    The terrorist crew are all men except one woman who is dating the head terrorist.
  • Ocean's Thirteen (2007) | Group of Men Without any Women
    The plot is Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and 12 men plan a heist to rob Willie Banks (Al Pacino) and torpedo his casino.
  • Beerfest (2006) | Group of Men Without any Women
    The bad guy five men Germany beer drinking team beat the five men Ireland beer drinking team at the beginning of the movie, but eventually at the climax lose to the good guy protagonist five men beer drinking team from the USA.
  • Thank You for Smoking (2005) | Group of Men With a "Token" Woman
    A Senate hearing chaired by Ortolan Finistirre on the dangers of smoking has 8 male and only 1 female Senator with the woman on the end and only three male Senators doing the talking. To hammer in that point, Nick Naylor addresses the nine of them as gentlemen before answering a question.
    Staff Aside
    I guess they forgot or didn't realize women Senators do exist.
  • Thank You for Smoking (2005) | Group of Men With a "Token" Woman
    The lobbyist group that refers to themselves as the MOD Squad has two men and one women with major actors cast which is reasonable. But when they later expand their "membership" after getting a lot of media attention, they add all men with cameo non-speaking roles when it would have been very easy to add women.
  • Ocean's Twelve (2004) | Group of Men With a "Token" Woman
    The plot is Danny Ocean's (George Clooney) 10 male partners plus Tess (Julia Roberts) plan a heist to pay back Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) by outwitting fellow thief "The Night Fox" and winning Rusty's ex-wife Isabel (Catherine Zeta-Jones) back in the process.
  • Master and Commander The Far Side of the World (2003) | Women Underrepresented in Historical Scenes
    The entire movie consists of only white men aboard a British ship sailing around the Galapagos Islands in 1805.
  • Ocean's Eleven (2001) | Group of Men With a "Token" Woman
    Rusty (Brad Pitt) teaches four young male and one female television actor how to play cards, and they are all depicted as really bad and dumb including someone laying down a non-matching flush saying "all red". Daniel Ocean (George Clooney) comes in later and wins a really big pot taking advantage of their stupidity.
    Additional Tropes: Young People Depicted as Dumb
  • Ocean's Eleven (2001) | Group of Men With a "Token" Woman
    The plot is eleven men plan a heist to rob another man's casino and win back his wife Tess (Julia Roberts) in the process.
  • Jurassic Park III (2001) | Group of Men With a "Token" Woman
    The main search party starts with 5 men and 1 woman on a search for the woman's son and boyfriend.
  • Armageddon (1998) | Group of Men With a "Token" Woman
    The entire mission crew consists of several male oil rig drillers and a NASA crew with one female co-pilot.
  • Armageddon (1998) | Group of Men Without any Women
    The entire mission control center is manned by men. We did not see a single woman anywhere. All the voices who said they were go for launch were men.
  • The Lost World Jurassic Park (1997) | Group of Men Without any Women
    The opening yachting scene the entire crew are all men. The entire Ingen company dinosaur extraction team are men with no women. The Ingen board of directors appears to be all men. When the extraction team does a video call with the board, you can see 11 men sitting at a table watching the screen, 5 men standing and 1 woman who walked across the room and left who could be on the board but was more likely assisting with some administrative task.
  • Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) | Group of Men With a "Token" Woman
    The terrorist crew are all men except one woman who is dating the head terrorist.
  • The Firm (1993) | Group of Men Without any Women
    The entire Firm consists of only male lawyers with the scene congratulating him on getting the second highest score on the Bar exam showing 31+ men and zero women.
  • Die Hard 2 (1990) | Group of Men Without any Women
    The entire crew of bad guy soldiers are men.
  • Die Hard (1988) | Group of Men Without any Women
    All the terrorist bad guys are men.
  • Ghostbusters (1984) | Group of Men Without any Women
    The Ghostbusters consist of three white men and one black man.
    Staff Aside
    Their assistant was a woman though but fitting in with the sexist times where women were often secretaries to men.