Passes the Bechdel test

Election

Name: Election
Released: 1999

1999. Directed by Alexander Payne, written by Tom Perrotta and Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
16 women characters. 10 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 7 scenes out of 199.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

The high school Class President election is approaching and it looks like Tracy Flick is going to win, unopposed. However, teacher Jim McAllister has other plans. He convinces jock Paul Metzler to run, sparking off an interesting chain of events.

Released: 07 May 1999
Genres: Comedy, Romance
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.2 / 10
Metascore: 83 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 16 wins & 34 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Jim 252 lines, man
Tracy 144 lines, woman
Paul 80 lines, man
Tammy 56 lines, woman
Sherry 30 lines
Walt 27 lines, man
Lisa 22 lines, woman
Dave 21 lines, man
Larry 18 lines, man
Diane 13 lines, woman

Full cast, 36 people

Matthew Broderick as Jim McAllister
Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick
Chris Klein as Paul Metzler
Jessica Campbell as Tammy Metzler
Mark Harelik as Dave Novotny
Phil Reeves as Walt Hendricks
Molly Hagan as Diane McAllister
Delaney Driscoll as Linda Novotny
Colleen Camp as Judith Flick
Frankie Ingrassia as Lisa Flanagan
Matt Malloy as Vice-Principal Bell
Jeanine Jackson as Jo Metzler
Holmes Osborne as Dick Metzler
Loren Nelson as Custodian
Emily Martin as Girl in Crisis
Jonathan Marion as Classroom Student
Amy Falcone as Classroom Student
Matt Justesen as Eat Me Boy
Nick Kenny as Eat Me Boy's Buddy
B.J. Tobin as Adult Video Actor
Christa Young as Adult Video Actor
David V. Wenzel as Eric
Joel Parks as Jerry Slavin
Larry Kaiser as Chemistry Teacher
Marilyn Tipp as Carver Office Lady
Jeannie Brayman as Faculty Ballot-Giver
Nicholas D'Agosto as Larry Fouch
James Devney as Motel Clerk
L. Carmen Novoa as Spanish Teacher
Jason Paige as Kid in Georgetown Hall
Matt Golden as Kid in Georgetown Hall
Heather Koenig as Kid in Georgetown Hall
Jillian Crane as Jillian
Kaitlin Ferrell as Jennifer (uncredited)
John Ponzio as Georgetown Student (uncredited)
Rohan Quine as Village Guy (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 8% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 199

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 5	2	2
6 to 10	5	6
11 to 15	5	17
16 to 20	6	11
21 to 25	10	8
26 to 30	4	23
31 to 35	17	13
36 to 40	3	8
41 to 45	8	33
46 to 50	5	1
51 to 55	16	4
56 to 60	20	2
61 to 65	1	4
66 to 70	8	6
71 to 75	0	11
76 to 80	22	30
81 to 85	12	8
86 to 90	1	0
91 to 95	0	0
96 to 100	0	5
101 to 105	0	5
106 to 110	19	25
111 to 115	13	15
116 to 120	0	5
121 to 125	0	0
126 to 130	0	2
131 to 135	3	11
136 to 140	2	2
141 to 145	9	2
146 to 150	3	2
151 to 155	1	8
156 to 160	14	6
161 to 165	0	27
166 to 170	4	30
171 to 175	10	30
176 to 180	9	17
181 to 185	5	8
186 to 190	10	5
191 to 195	1	10
196 to 199	20	21

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

TAMMY: What? LISA: I told you ... I can't. I just -- It doesn't feel right anymore, you know?

TAMMY: If you could just get out of your head. LISA: I said no!

LISA: I gotta go. TAMMY: You dumbshit!

TAMMY: Stop! Wait! TAMMY: Where 're you going? LISA: I'm not like you. TAMMY: What...?

LISA: Are you crazy? TAMMY: What? LISA: People can see this. TAMMY: So?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 39 are women's.

268 lines from women, 423 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

16 women and 12 men in the cast. 10 women and 10 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 38 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 38% of the words (4,036), men 62% (6,496). Women have 39% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

3 of the 14 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 21% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Alexander Payne (man)
Written by: Alexander Payne (man), Jim Taylor (man)
From the novel by: Tom Perrotta (man)
Produced by: Albert Berger (man), Keith Samples (man), Ron Yerxa (man), David Gale (gender not listed)
Shot by: James Glennon (man)
Edited by: Kevin Tent (man)
Music by: Rolfe Kent (man)
Production design by: Jane Ann Stewart (woman)
Costumes by: Wendy Chuck (woman)
Cast by: Lisa Beach (woman)