Geena Davis was shocked by what her daughter was watching

It’s apt. Ridley Scott’s 1991 female buddy movie took a time-worn movie plot and reversed the gender. It skyrocketed her career and became a benchmark of directing, writing, acting and feminism.

Has it ever frustrated her that such a defining film has dominated her career? “Well, no, it hasn't really even occurred to me. But I feel lucky I was in one film that was a cultural landmark, that struck a nerve, and I'm happy it was about women and women's freedom to be who they are. It means a lot to me.

“You know you can go through your career and have successes and hits, maybe even awards, but to touch the pulse of what’s going on is very gratifying.”

She certainly has her finger on the pulse.

She’s in Sydney as the keynote speaker for All About Women, a women-in-media conference at the Opera House being simulcast by satellite to 25 centres across the country, including Parramatta, Blacktown and Penrith, and two in New Zealand.

Davis has always taken a strong stand for strong female roles. She was a rabble-rousing pirate in Cutthroat Island, a sleeper agent in The Long Kiss Goodnight, she beat Hillary to the US Presidency in Commander in Chief. Roles with plot agency, that don’t rely on men for their existence.

But it was when she began watching films and TV with her daughter, then just 2, she was shocked to see how females were being presented in family entertainment.

She took it up with studio bosses who said she didn’t have a case. So she fought back.

She established the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to scrutinise current screen output and lobby for better female role models.

You must have been pretty alarmed to establish your own institute? “Right! I founded it as a result of watching G-rated movies with my daughter [Alizeh Davis Jarrahy, Davis is married to neurosurgeon Reza Jarrahy]. She was 2 then, she's now 14. And watching these things with her I was appalled to see there was a big gender disparity in the entertainment we're showing the youngest kids.

“I mean their first impression of society being reflected back to them shows girls as being very much not there, not to the action, stereotyped, hyper-sexualised. I thought, wow, this is the 21st century – you woulda figured we'd got past this by now for kids!

“So I started talking to studio bosses, whoever I happened to meet, and they'd say no, I don't think that's true. They'd say like, well, no, we have Belle in Beauty and the Beast – as if this one character solved the whole problem when the vast majority of characters in that movie were male.

“That's what made me realise we needed data in order to really get the message across.

“The institute funded the largest study ever done of G-rated movies and we found there were quite a few problems that needed addressing.

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“One is that for every female character there were three male characters, and if it's a group scene you’re lucky to get one or two females and they’re all highly, highly stereotyped.

“And it was astounding to learn the female characters in G-rated movies wore the same amount of sexually revealing clothing as in R-rated movies.

“What?! Like, what? Why is there any sexually revealing clothing in G-rated movies at all!

“So that's disturbing and kids do more TV-watching than any other activity except sleeping.

“Some kids are up to like 10 hours a day of screen time, whether a computer or TV. Obviously it’s gonna have a big impact on them.

“We also found that for girls, depending on the number of hours they watch, that – how do I put this? – the more television a girl watches, the fewer opportunities in life she believes she has.

“Clearly there's something in the media that she's looking at that's giving her that idea.”

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To quantify the problem is a step in the right direction but have you been fighting a losing battle? “We've been going to the people who make these products – the movies and TV. Disney, Pixar and all the studios. We present our research and what I find fascinating is that they had no idea. They were floored when we told them. You'd think they'd have been a little more aware.

“But it's not a malicious plot, I think it's just sort of the way it's always been.

“Most animators are male and people are enculturated not to notice. But I do think there's hope for change, because of their reactions. Some even said, wow, this is not appropriate, we should look at this . . .”