Girls on Film: gender representation in STEM photographs

This Masters of Professional Communication (MPC) Major Research Paper (MRP) will investigate how commercial, STEM-centric imagery consumed across various visual media outlets can encourage and even reinforce the gender gap in STEM. My research questions for this project are as follows: o Are females and males equally represented in the most downloaded commercial photos on the most popular stock photography websites in North America, specifically Fotolia and IStock? o In commercial, STEM photos with both males and females present, does one gender generally take the “leadership role” in the photo (as defined)? o In commercial, STEM photos with both males and females present, does one gender generally outnumber the other?