Geena Davis Fights For Gender Equality In Hollywood

We first fell in love with Geena Davis in the classic chick-flick, Thelma & Louise. After taking on another empowered female role in Commander in Chief in 2006, the Academy Award-winning actress took some time off to raise her three children - daughter Azileh, 8, and fraternal twin sons, Kian and Kaiis, 6 – with her husband, plastic surgeon Reza Jarrahy.

At 54, Geena embraces her role as an older mom and tells Ladies' Home Journal, “I’m a much better mother than I would have been in my 30s. I’ve learned how to fully give myself to another person. But I don’t have as much energy as I would like. My kids love to play chase and I’m always like, ‘Ugh, can’t we draw?’”

Best known for her cutting edge female empowerment roles, the mother-of-three has launched the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media which advocates for the need to increase the number of girls and women in media aimed at kids and to reduce stereotyping of both males and females.

“There are far fewer female characters than male characters onscreen,” she says. “The ones kids do see are too skinny and sexy.”

So what can parents do to help raise awareness in their own homes?

“Watch TV and movies with your kids and point out the imbalance [between boys and girls]," Geena says. "Also, minimize kids’ exposure: The more TV a girl watches, the more likely she is to believe that her life options are limited.”