salon:

Hollywood’s diversity problem has increasingly come under the magnifying glass in recent months, with a string of Hollywood women speaking out about their experiences with ageism, objectification and inequality, LGBTQ performers being more outspoken about their experiences and artists of color opening up on issues related to diversity and racism in the entertainment industry.

But just because marginalized voices are getting louder doesn’t mean the problem is shrinking. In a staggering report called “Inequality in 700 Popular Films” from USC’s Media, Diversity, and Social Change Initiative, researchers analyzed the 100 top grossing films each year from 2007 to 2014 (excluding 2011). What they found was that Hollywood’s gender imbalance is even worse than it seems — and it seems pretty bad! — with only 30.2 percent out of 30,835 speaking roles in the 700 films going to women. What’s more, the numbers have hardly changed over seven years, with only approximately 21 percent of movies in 2014 featuring a female lead — the same percentage as in 2007.