This is about how Geena Davis’s use of data inspired me, and some of my takeaways that maybe you will find useful too.
I belong to a celebrity memoir book club through my local library (CelebriTea! We drink and spill the tea!). I’ve loved it—it gets me to read some fun books I might not otherwise read with a group of women from different backgrounds, who exchange thoughts and questions and ideas in a remarkably enjoyable and inclusive way. I don’t know how it happens, but I’ve never seen a group who takes turns so well, builds on each other’s ideas, and shares dissenting opinions so warmly and naturally. The stakes are low, of course, but we often have strong opinions, and the dynamic has been this way with members new and old joining, and varied sizes of attendance. I’d love to bottle the nature of these exchanges and be able to bring them to more spaces.
One month, we read Geena Davis’s memoir, which was fun and compelling. I was aware of her work to bring gender parity to Hollywood, but listening to her audiobook, I learned more details. I was struck by how she, who is not a data scientist or program evaluator, valued research and recognized that collecting data would help her learn and make her case to Disney and others. She invested in research, and her work has led to improvements, though gradual, in both roles and representation of women and girls as well as in measurement tools themselves.
You can read more about her work here, among other places:
https://www.bu.edu/articles/2020/geena-davis/ and this is the book we read: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/dying-of-politeness-geena-davis?variant=40404274806818
Inspiring takeaways/reminders
Great research ideas come from the people involved in the issue (I hope you already know this!). Geena Davis was a woman acting in Hollywood, seeing roles diminish for women as they aged, and a mother who noticed the lack of female representation in what her kids watched. These experiences inspired her to take action and fund groundbreaking research.
Results are powerful when shared within relationships/Don’t weaponize data. In her memoir, she describes bringing the results of their initial research to Disney animators, who were surprised and dismayed to see the unconscious biases they brought to their work. One animator noted that he had just drawn a crowd scene and filled it with all male characters, without even thinking about it. She comments on how these animators got into their work in order to bring joy to children and families. As quoted in the BU article, “I never bust anyone publicly.” Instead, Ms. Davis assumes best intentions and leverages a range of meeting types to share results.
Iterate! She started her research center in the early 2000s, and now 20 years later, they’ve continued to create new innovations in science and measurement. Here’s an example of software they developed: https://seejane.org/research-informs-empowers/data/ . Before developing this software, most studies of representation had been conducted manually.
From this rainy winter day in Boston, I hope you are staying warm tonight, maybe with a cup of tea and a book, and finding some inspiration. The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media says, “If she can see it, she can be it®” If we can share examples of effective data use, we can learn and make the world better. Also, please support your local library and librarians!
