Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by zaep 748 days ago
Can it possibly be true that 60+% (she writes "nearly two-thirds") of women in STEM have this character as an influence? I'm only barely aware of this media property and here in Europe I feel our Media is fairly "American" still, does this show have such a global reach? I found, for instance, that the X-Files movie only had 4.2% of its revenue internationally, so I think its not such a popular property outside the US. How would even 10% of chinese female STEM workers hear of this character?

I believe she is citing the PDF she links, where only an archived version is available right now. It seems to be a US-only study, although I don't see any explanation of where participants were from.
2 comments
datpiff 748 days ago
The movies were much less successful than the TV series. The series was definitely hugely popular in Western Europe at least, I can't speak for the whole continent.

Yep, the PDF/study is US-based (and funded by 21st Century Fox lol) " The sample was demographically representative and weighted to be representative of women in the U.S. population based on age (25 and older), STEM involvement, and viewing of The X-Files" https://web.archive.org/web/20180605152837/https://impact.21...

link
theshrike79 748 days ago
It's not about revenue, but cultural penetration and knowledge.

"Everyone" knew who and what Scully was. She was the doctor/scientist brains of the team, while Mulder just went around investigating crazy stuff.

link
ta1243 748 days ago
Same with Star Trek a generation before - a whole generation of scientists and engineers would site Spock and Scotty as inspirations.
link