For the purpose of this research project content analysis was used to compile the data used in the project. Starting with compiling every Academy Award-winner for “Actress in a Leading Role” via the Oscars archives (https://www.oscars.org/oscars), then a trailer for each film was found via YouTube. All trailers were watched and coded based on the leading actresses’ gender role, occupation, relationship to men, clothing, body type, age, behavior, and empowerment. After this it was clear there was a separation between three distinctive time periods; 1930 to 1945, 1960 to 1975, and 1990 to 2005. In the 1930 to 1945 time period only the films from 1931, 1933, and 1935 to 1945 have trailers available, the other two time periods worked with all 15 films per period of time. Then all trailers were re-watched multiple times in order to accurately code further. Through this process, all information and analysis were gathered and complied with the timelines and pages present on the website. The timelines show the most relevant films and their corresponding trailers.
Historical research was then conducted to look further into the social and political events that would have caused the changes in representation in regards to women in the films. There were significant links to the years of historical events and the changes in the representation of women, which were then added to the timelines and homepages of each corresponding year.
