Research Symposium

BIO

Hi! My name is Riya Nair and I am from Jacksonville, Florida. I am a Freshman majoring in Behavioral Neuroscience on a Pre-Med track. I hope to someday become a doctor.
In my free time, I enjoy playing volleyball, spending time with friends and family, and traveling!

Representation of Women in Female Directed Bollywood Films

Abstract

One main way that cultural expectations and social norms are depicted in society is through film. Women are often depicted differently in movies depending on the gender of the director. To understand this phenomenon, this project analyzes women characters in women-directed films from Bollywood, the commercial film industry in India. Gender roles in Bollywood films are defined by the Indian culture, religion, and social norms. The goal of this study is to collect qualitative and quantitative data that may provide more information on how cultural expectations are portrayed in films produced by female directors. This project uses survey coding to determine types and frequency of female representation. Each female character within the films is examined in aspects including clothing, religion, relationships, education, and taboo behavior and are coded accordingly into the system. As undergraduate research assistants, we are trained to accurately code the data from each female character in each film into Qualtrics surveys. We are put into groups of at least two research assistants to ensure each character is coded more than once. After inputting the data, we compare survey answers to ensure the most correct data is being submitted. This project is still at its initial stages; therefore, we do not have conclusive results. However, we can begin to see trends across the films we have finished coding. Further research is necessary to better understand how women are being represented in Bollywood films, directed by women, because it provides insight into how women are perceived in India.

Keywords: Bollywood, Female-Directions, Representation