Additional Note:
We would like to note the inclusion of “unknown” genders in all our visualizations is intentional. We do not want to erase individuals who may choose to keep their gender unlisted and anonymous for personal reasons. Although these unknown values do not directly help us answer our research questions, we have deliberately and respectfully chosen to keep them in our visualizations to acknowledge their presence in the data. Additionally, there is a very large set of unknown values in our dataset. Therefore, we also decided to include this because we could not ignore the large set of director values that were listed as unknown.
Data Visualization 1
Interactive bar chart showing average movie rating by genre and director gender, comparing male, female, and unknown directors within each genre.
Analysis:
This side by side bar chart is a direct way to compare the mean differences between genres by director genre in a clear way. This allows us to easily identify where male or female directors may have higher average ratings based on the respective genre. Additionally, this graph used the mean ratings by genre and director gender in order to ensure that the ratings are on a common scale, rather than by the amount of movies made by each gender. Using the addition of color, we can see how female and male directors have different mean ratings based on the genre. Additionally, this graph uses genre information from genre 1 (which is seen to be the genre that is most dominant in each film).
We see that female mean ratings are actually better than men in certain genres: Action, animation, comedy, drama, history, horror, music, romance, thriller. This means that out of the 20 genres listed, women dominate almost half of these in average ratings compared to men. These results are shocking as previous texts from our annotated bibliography show that women typically direct genres such as romance or drama and avoid genres such as action as those are typically more male-dominated genres. They stick to the cultural “norm” of what female directing typically looks like. This leads us to believe that the directing of movies are not actually representative of what audiences would like to see, but rather that the system of the film industry clearly favors men over women for movie directing. This result is also even more staggering to see given the fact that the actual count of women-directed films are much, much lower than men-directed films. This would indicate that women-directed films (even with their very low count) must have better ratings generally than the large supply of men-directed films. This graph goes to show and provides additional evidence that women are disproportionally represented in the film-making industry. This visualization thus shows that increased representation of female directors could elevate cultural diversity and overall audience satisfaction.
Data Visualization 2
Bar chart showing the average popularity of film genres for movies directed by male versus female directors.
Analysis:
The visualization comparing average popularity across genres for male, female, and unknown directors reveals clear structural patterns in the film industry. Male directors consistently dominate genres traditionally associated with high budgets and blockbuster success such as Adventure, Science Fiction, Thriller, and Crime with having some of the highest popularity averages. This reflects long-standing industry inequalities, where men have historically received more funding, marketing support, and access to franchise-driven genres that naturally generate higher audience visibility. In contrast, female-directed films appear less frequently across most genres, but where they do appear, particularly in Drama, Family, Music, and Romance have their average popularity is often equal to or higher than male-directed films. This suggests that when women are given opportunities within narrative-focused or emotionally driven genres, their work resonates strongly with audiences.
Another notable trend is the presence of the “Unknown” director gender category, which performs unexpectedly well in certain genres such as Science Fiction and Family. Because IMDB encodes gender numerically (0 for unknown, 1 for female, and 2 for male), any unverified metadata defaults to 0, which becomes “Unknown” in the dataset. This likely reflects gaps in metadata for older or international titles, but it also highlights how incomplete gender tagging can obscure a full understanding of representation. Overall, the visualization illustrates that gender disparities in film popularity are less about audience reception and more closely tied to access and opportunity. Male directors benefit from dominating genres with built-in commercial advantages, while female directors often excel in the genres where they are more consistently represented. The data ultimately reinforces that popularity is not a function of gender, but of the industry structures that determine which creators are allowed into which creative spaces.
Data Visualization 3
Each block in this treemap represents the number of films directed by this gender in the selected genre.
Analysis:
A treemap was utilized because it provides a good way to show how many films were produced for each genre and by dimensionally representing the production of films, it allows for easier comparison between film genres and genders of directors simultaneously. Each rectangle on the treemap represents a different genre, while the size of the rectangle represents how many films were produced in that genre. The colors, which are blue for men, yellow for women, and green for unknown, demonstrate which gender is most predominant in each genre, and allow viewers to quickly assess the composition of the female and male directors in each genre. The treemap allows the viewer to tell not only what genres are produced more often (e.g. Drama, Comedy, Action) but also the gender balance of the director gender within each genre, and the number of directors who were unknown or missing from the data.
This project uses this treemap to illustrate the continuing disparity between males and females in the film industry, where the overwhelming number of films are directed by males, and females are directing films in fewer numbers within the smaller, and more socially conscious genres like Romance and Documentary. Additionally, the significant “Unknown” section of the treemap depicts an important absence of data about which genders directors are classified as. The lack of documentation supports the course’s discussion of the idea of power and erasure associated with data and also affects the historical record. As the patterns above indicate, women directors are facing considerable structural challenges, and their lack of complete information results in our inability to determine accurately their representation in the arts.
Data Visualization 4
Line chart showing trends in average film budgets over time by director gender (female, male, unknown).
Analysis:
This line chart was used in order to see how the quantity of average budgets changes over time for female and male directors. Additionally, the color coding allows us to easily see the differences in budget between female and male directors. The use of average budgets was intentional here as we know that based on the dataset that women have historically directed much less films than men. Therefore, this is averaged in order to assess resources per project.
The chart shows the average funding gap between women and male-directed films. Typically, men receive more funding than women other than the years 1954 and 1987 which shows large spikes in female directed average funding. For the year 1954, this was likely because there were very few or only one female director of that time and outliers may have skewed the data in this way. In the year 1987, there may have been an increase in average budget that led to higher average budgets than men due to the waves of feminism and also outliers. There was a second-wave of feminism during the 1960s-1980s that may have led to the increase in average female budgets, but were likely also impacted by a couple outliers for few female directors. However, other than those two specific years, women have typically been under or very similar to the average budget of male directors. This isn’t shocking as men are already known to be favored in the film-making industry. Although women have typically been under-budgeted compared to men, many of the average ratings for female-directed films are still higher than men-directed films. This indicates that budget is not a part of what makes a film have higher ratings in general, and rather is likely due to the differences in female and male perspectives in film.
Data Visualization 5
This visualization displays a comparison between gender and the average budgets for female, male and unknown values.
Analysis:
To see a difference reflected on a large scale between a few categories, it is best to use a bar chart with clear labeling and a clear rationale. This chart is best used for comparison, but it can also be used to display numerical values or track changes over time. They are ideal, especially when using data that is discrete and when labels are long and there are a limited number of categories. The length or height of the bar chart reflects the greater values versus the lower numerical values. Within the question being measured, we aim to detect a difference between a few categories that exhibit a numeric difference. Additionally, utilizing the budget as the numerical value allows us to see the gap between the genders.
When producing and directing films, there is an allotted budget that usually varies from the movie’s projected performance or overall production. This bar chart clearly shows a significant difference in budget between males and females, suggesting that females are often given a lower budget than their male industry counterparts. However, it is also important to note the unaccounted for unknown values. This gender was not identified within our dataset, leaving a hole, as well as with the null value. Nonetheless there is still a stark difference to note between males and females that presents many more unanswered questions.
Map Visualization
This map compares average film ratings across countries by director gender–females on the left in yellow, males in the middle in blue, and our “unknown” values on the right in turquoise. The map displays averages overlaying the map within the region it falls in.
Analysis
This map portrays a clear geographical comparison in the distribution and reception of films based on director gender. After building the map, it’s evident that our color gradient remains relatively consistent across the three maps. Most countries average about 5-6.5 in ratings while Male and female shading patterns are nearly identical. This suggests that geographical differences in ratings are more leading than gender differences amongst film directors. Regions like Western Europe and South America tend to show higher averages, while regions such as Africa and the Middle East tend to show lower average ratings (lighter gradient). In addition to the unknown value, this indicates there is not only lower values, but also a wide range of missing data. This consistency across the male and female maps may indicate that ratings are heavily influenced by regional film industries and production volume rather than gender alone.
The “unknown” category emphasizes that many countries show similarly comparable averages to the Female and Male categories, but also highlighting where gender information is missing or inconsistent. Still, there is a continued presence of strong averages in the “unknown,” which suggests there are potential gaps in the data collection. This lack of gender distribution and missing information can obscure patterns and lead to unrecognized or silenced representation. Overall, the map showcases the global distribution of film production and how director gender intersects with average ratings.
Line graph showing trends in the frequency of the words life, young, woman, family, new, and love across the selected corpus.
Analysis
The words life, young, woman, family, new, and love appear the most frequently across the female-director overviews, and their consistent presence offers insights into the themes most commonly associated with women-directed films. These high-frequency words point toward narratives centered on personal identity, relationships, and emotional experience, rather than plot-driven or action-oriented storytelling. Their repetition across all ten document segments suggests that these themes are not isolated to a handful of films but instead form a pattern in how female-directed work is summarized and presented within this dataset. This emphasis on life events, family dynamics, and interpersonal relationships aligns with existing research noting that female filmmakers are often associated with character-focused and relational narratives. While this does not capture the entire range of genres women direct, the prominence of these particular terms reveals how female-directed films tend to be framed at the level of public descriptions and marketing language.
