From bus shelter posters to the braces of action figures in toy stores awaiting the Christmas rush, Jyn Erso was everywhere this summer. From her omnipresence in the film's promotional material, Rogue One's heroine, played by Felicity Jones, seemed to be following in the footsteps of The Force Awakens' Rey in chipping away at the dudely nature of that galaxy far, far away.
You may, then, have been surprised to see the film and discover that Erso is more of the strong, silent type. Not only does her co-conspirator, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), say more than her, she's more often than not the only woman in the room.
![Felicity Jones portrays Jyn Erso in <i>Rogue One: A Star Wars Story</i>.](/web/20170123200702im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/a/l/q/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtu244.png/1484771361985.jpg)
The Star Wars universe seemed to have gone Lean In, content to let one exceptional woman through the door while still maintaining a masculine galactic energy. What had felt like a revolutionary moment for the series in the lead-up to the film's release seemed, in reality, more of an encouraging step in the right direction.
Rogue One is not alone in this oversight. A survey of dialogue spoken in the worldwide top ten highest grossing films, uncovered bleak news. Female characters spoke just 27 per cent of the dialogue in those ten films. Worse, the two female characters with the most dialogue – Finding Dory's Dory and Zootopia's Judy Hopps – were animated animals.
![This was the female character with the biggest speaking part in the survey of 2016's top films.](/web/20170123200702im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/p/j/b/a/t/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtu244.png/1484771361985.jpg)
Amber Thomas, who conducted the dialogue survey, was inspired to investigate after feeling disappointed that Rogue One's Erso seemed to so often take a back seat to her male collaborators.
"It felt strangely familiar to have a lead female character be so outnumbered," she wrote. "Then I realised that Jyn and Princess Leia suffered the same inequality 39 years apart."
If all this intel feels like deja vu, that's because, well, it is. A similar study across 2000 available film scripts last year turned up nearly identical data, including confirming the infuriating rumour that male characters speak more often than female characters (yes, even the Princesses) in Disney movies.
The Twitter account @FemScriptIntros highlights the often inane ways female characters are introduced in scripts (including the dreaded "sexy, but doesn't know it").
Lots of people ask "but how are men depicted in these scripts?" Men write 80% and direct 85% of films. How men are depicted isn't the point.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) August 3, 2016
And yet, despite the fact that 2016 seemed to be the point that feminism finally reached Hollywood – from #AskHerMore to a renewed focus on supporting female filmmakers and creating stronger roles for women – despite all the soundbites, hashtags, red carpet protests and cover stories, things actually got worse for women in film.
The annual Celluloid Ceiling report, released last week by San Diego State University's Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, revealed women made up only 17 per cent of the directors, producers, screenwriters, cinematographers, executive producers and editors working across the 250 top grossing films in 2016. Of the top films, 35 per cent had either zero or only one woman in any of those roles.
Of the 250 films scrutinised, 92 per cent had no female directors, and 96 per cent had no female cinematographers. (Women experienced a 2 per cent drop in representation in the director's chair since 2015 across the top grossing films.)
It's enough to make you feel positively jubilant about the fact that "only" 77 per cent of the films had no female writers.
We already know that productions with female directors are more likely to employ women behind the scenes, and crucially, as writers; the 2015 study revealed that in male-directed films, women made up just 8 per cent of writing staff – in female-directed films, that figure was closer to half.
There has not yet been a study as to whether having female screenwriters leads to a higher concentration of female characters, but given that women wrote the Ghostbusters reboot, Pitch Perfect 2, 50 Shades Of Grey, Bridesmaids and a number of other notably successful "women's movies", anecdotal evidence suggests as much is true.
I have thought a lot about Rogue One and its apparent "feminist" status given Erso's key role. While I loved the film (it's easily one of my favourite Star Wars movies), the lack of female characters was striking.
If a young woman can lead a Rebel mission, why couldn't Blue Leader have also been female? Are there any female Mon Calamari admirals? Given her standing in the Alliance, why did Mon Mothma seem to spend most of her time standing around looking chill?
The "sole, strong female character" model in film may feel like a triumph because it's a stark contrast to the reams of male leads we're subjected to. But in much the same way that a female CEO succeeding in a macho business power structure isn't necessarily a win for other women (especially those below her on the corporate ladder – just ask Marissa Mayer's underlings), plonking a female character in the middle of a bunch of men isn't going to change the filmic landscape.
And if, heading into 2017, our most talkative female characters are still animated animals, it seems we've got a longer way to go than you might have thought.
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