According to new!Magazine, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Geena to a state commission established to promote women’s equality. Geena, who is a Democrat, was appointed to California’s Commission on the Status of Women on Tuesday, July 20. The nonpartisan panel works to promote equality and justice for all women in areas such as education and access to health care.

Geena has previously worked to promote the cause – she is involved in the United Nations Development Fund for Women and is founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which encourages film and TV writers to create more roles for the fairer sex. She will serve on the commission for four years.

Congratulations on the accomplishment!

Click to view two more pics and PDF-link to Geena’s speech and archived articles on the event.

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Photo: AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Unifem article on the event, original / archived (PDF)
Geena’s speech delivered at press conference (PDF)
An interesting recap is found at The Daily Tell blog / archived (PDF).

“Hollywood is literally run on the concept that women want to watch stories about men and men don’t want to watch stories on women,” she said. “Our hands are literally tied by the fact that men aren’t interested in women’s stories.”

Davis says change can start when women pay attention and share what they see with others.

“I feel strongly that you can’t rely on change happening in the natural course of things,” she said. “Unless people are very active pushing and noticing this phenomena, things won’t change.”

“There’s terrific energy when women gather together,” she added. “With so many women working so hard, we can cause dramatic change.”

originally by Kelly Puente

She wore a navy blue suit and light blue shirt. One of the first laughs came when she quipped that one thing about portraying the first female president of the United States in the TV show “Commander-in-Chief” – for which she won a Golden Globe – was that she now had “a lifetime supply of snazzy business attire.”

In spite of her humor, the film and TV star was earnest about her message that media and society do not give equal status to women. Two turning points in her life opened her eyes about that, she said.

Read the full article at The Des Moines Register online

(Weird photo? Not really! Geena was imitating Lt. Uhura from “Star Trek” as she talked about acting roles women had while she was growing up.)

She has acknowledged those who have influenced her, she has dedicated efforts toward improving gender depictions in children’s media, and she has portrayed women of influence in her acting.

Role modeling is a topic that will most likely be heard when Davis takes the stage at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines at 7:30 p.m. today. She is the final speaker in the Smart Talk Women’s Lecture Series sponsored by The Des Moines Register.

Read the article at The Des Moines Register online

Davis started her speech by drawing laughs from the School of Communication for her advice on how to become a movie star: “First step. Get really big parts in major motion pictures.”

She then spoke about serious gender research being done at USC Annenberg that shows a vast underrepresentation of female characters in popular TV and media. About 200 USC Annenberg undergraduate students, including more than 50 research assistants sitting in the audience as new graduates, helped in the research done in partnership with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

“Research and education are the cornerstones of affecting change,” Davis said.

“The studies include these recommendations for entertainment executives and creators: Include more females as main characters, secondary characters, in crowds and as narrators; provide female characters with aspirations beyond romance and develop the inner character of female characters.”

Read the full article here. Also see photos from the event here. This photo shows Geena with principal researcher, USC Annenberg School for Communication professor Stacy Smith. (photo: Dan Avila)

Photos by Dave Edwards

Thank you, 77517!