Only three out of every ten characters seen in the top 50 grossing movies of 2016 were played by women. According to Conor Neville and Phyllis Anastasio of Saint Joseph’s University in the US, this in no way reflects real world demographics. In a study in Springer’s journal Sex Roles, the researchers analyzed how gender and age are presented in popular films. They found that although women and older people are still in the minority on screen, over the past fifteen years there has been an improvement in how these groups are portrayed. Women, in particular, are nowadays more often cast as characters holding positions of power.