Female representation across mythologies

Authors

  • M. Janickyj Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems, Coventry University, Coventry, CV1 5FB, United Kingdom; L4 Collaboration & Doctoral College for the Statistical Physics of Complex Systems, Leipzig-Lorraine-Lviv-Coventry, Europe; Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6113-3610
  • P. MacCarron MACSI, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Limerick, Limerick V94 T9PX, Ireland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5163-9264
  • Y. Yose Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems, Coventry University, Coventry, CV1 5FB, United Kingdom; L4 Collaboration & Doctoral College for the Statistical Physics of Complex Systems, Leipzig-Lorraine-Lviv-Coventry, Europe https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8250-213X
  • R. Kenna Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems, Coventry University, Coventry, CV1 5FB, United Kingdom; L4 Collaboration & Doctoral College for the Statistical Physics of Complex Systems, Leipzig-Lorraine-Lviv-Coventry, Europe https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9990-4277

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5488/cmp.27.33802

Keywords:

networks, complex systems, social systems

Abstract

Social groups have been studied throughout history to understand how different configurations impact those within them. Along with this came the interest in investigating social groups of both fictional and mythological works. Over the last decade these social groups have been studied through the lens of network science allowing for a new level of comparison between these stories. We use this approach to focus on the attributes of the characters within these networks, specifically looking at their gender. With this we review how the female populations within various narratives and to some extent the societies they are based in are portrayed. Through this we find that although there is not a trend of all narratives of the same origin having similar levels of representation some are noticeably better than others. We also observe which narratives overall prioritise important female characters and which do not.

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Published

2024-09-24

Issue

Vol. 27 No. 3 (2024): Special issue “Statistical physics and emergent behaviour: from spin models to cultural complexity”

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Copyright (c) 2024 M. Janickyj, P. MacCarron, Y. Yose, R. Kenna

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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How to Cite

[1]
M. Janickyj, P. MacCarron, Y. Yose, and R. Kenna, “Female representation across mythologies”, Condens. Matter Phys., vol. 27, no. 3, p. 33802, Sep. 2024, doi: 10.5488/cmp.27.33802.