Gender 

Female

. Feminist Betty Friedan claimed "TV has represented American woman to be stupid, unattractive, insecure little house hold drudge who spends her martyred mindless, boring days dreaming of love.

For years, when men were behind the camera, women were really ditsy. Now you have female leads playing superheroes, or super business women”. 

The stereotypes of women as housewives or presented as sex symbols continued throughout the 1980s and arguably to a lesser extent in the 21st century. 

Men

.  The western, the detective/police thriller, science fiction, and the medical drama featured controlling male characters, having adventures, braving danger, solving problems through reason and/or violence


Facts and Figures

In 1952, 68% of characters in prime time dramas were male; in 1973, 74% of characters in these shows were male

• On prime time cable news programs, more than three-quarters of the hosts are white men and less than a quarter are white women. None of the hosts are people of colour. The typical guest on these shows is white and male; overall, 67 percent of the guests are men and 84 percent are white.
• In children's television, male characters appear at about twice the rate of female characters.
• Animated programs in particular are more likely to portray male characters.
• Females are almost four times as likely to be presented in sexy attire and twice as likely to be shown with a diminutive waist.
• In a study of G-rated films from 1990-2005, only 28 percent of the speaking characters (both live and animated) were female. More than four out of five of the narrators were male. Eighty-five percent of the characters were white.