More female roles in tv series?

The proportion of female roles on television is a subject of debate and demands. Is it increasing? This article offers the most extensive literature review to date, based on a meta-analysis of 48 publications on US television from 1951 to 2023. The results show a wide disparity in quantifications, even for the same year of broadcast. Which figures should be used? How can they be compared? By contrast, in France a single institutional monitoring system facilitates comparisons over time (2008-2021). Examining the evolution of female roles requires us to consider the diversity of sampling and quality control methods, and the difficulty of characterizing main and recurring roles. This specific topic sheds light on the broader issue of how to conduct a census of fictional populations, particularly in series where the principle of non-equivalence of individuals prevails.