G-rated job market strays far from reality.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief article

Where do our youngest children see 178 times as many female entertainers and 86 times more male entertainers than there are in the U.S. workforce? The answer: In the most popular G-rated movies--which young children watch over and over on DVD and video.

According to "The G-Rated Job Market: Occupational Aspirations for Girls and Boys in Children's Films," a report from the See Jane program of Dads & Daughters, Los Angeles, there is significant divergence between occupations that movie characters hold and those held by real people. Characters also tend to follow gender stereotypes closely in occupations, while virtually no male characters engage in stereotypically female work. Researchers studied the 101 top-grossing G-rated films released from 1990-2004, analyzing a total of 4,249 speaking characters in live-action and animated films.

"Of course, we expect these films to tell fictional stories and frequently portray fantasies," notes Joe Kelly, president of Dads &amp...