Featured Image Credit: Paramount Pictures
Topics: Film and TV, Money
Emily Brown
New research into finance-related movies and TV shows has claimed that characters like those in The Wolf of Wall Street are to blame for a $705 billion investment gap between men and women.
The research, which has come from Dr Ylva Baeckström of King’s Business School, in collaboration with the trading and investing platform eToro, involved a study of the gendered portrayal of investment on screen, and pointed out how male-centric many of the best-known investing titles are.
Movies like The Wolf of Wall Street, The Big Short and the BBC title Industry all have men at the center of their stories, while women are often 'sidelined' as supporting characters.
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Needless to say, women can invest too.
But Dr. Baeckström, who is a senior lecturer in finance, has claimed these on-screen depictions 'have a potentially disastrous impact on society'.
Describing the portrayals as 'sadly unsurprising' and 'deeply disappointing', Baeckström said: "We all know that women earn less, invest less, yet live longer than men and therefore have an even greater need to build wealth to secure their futures.
“It has been proven that what we watch on screen affects our attitudes and influences our behavior. The misrepresentation of finance and investing as a pursuit for ‘alpha males’ and the lack of female role models are perpetuating the gender investment gap.”
Of course, there is the argument that The Wolf of Wall Street was inspired by real life, and the 'wolf' in question just so happened to be male.
However, the research, which analyzed major films and series about finance and investing from the past 15 years, highlighted a trend across the genre, noting that 75 percent of screen time is occupied by male financial experts, who comprise 64 percent of the experts portrayed on screen.
Almost half of the men (47 percent) are CEOs, but in contrast there is not a single depiction of a female CEO.
Instead, women are portrayed as wives, partners, administrative assistants, or in sexualised roles. The research also noted that while over 85 percent of active parenting in the films and TV series is carried out by the moms, there's not a single female character who is a financial expert with a child.
When women are depicted as financial experts, they are seen as less knowledgeable and less confident than male characters.
Baeckström continued: “Movies have the power to demonstrate the reality that investing is for everyone, regardless of gender and background. Ordinary people, including women, need to be inspired and encouraged, not excluded and disrespected.”
Lale Akoner, Global Markets Analyst at eToro, agreed, saying: "Long-term investing is one of the best ways to grow wealth over time.
"That’s why closing the gap isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s essential to building a strong and inclusive society, where women have the same opportunity to build their wealth in a way that supports their goals.
"There is a need for female role models both on- and off-screen to encourage us all to talk more about money and to inspire the next generation of female investors.”