File Under "We Sort of Knew That"

Five-Thirty-Eight's Walt Hickey did a short survey of the gender gap on screen and in real life, and says he's found that Hollywood wildly underrepresents women in a number of professions, including bartending, medicine (doctoring, not nursing), and, surprisingly, lawyering. He suggests a reason for the bias: if males already dominate a profession, screenwriters or directors just cast a man in the role. It's easier. Here's a link to an earlier piece in which he delves more deeply into the gender gap onscreen.

Interestingly, at least one article suggests that women are overrepresented in some professions, at least on tv.

Kimberley De Tardo-Bora, Criminal Justice “Hollywood Style”: How Women in Criminal Justice Professions Are Depicted in Prime-Time Crime Dramas, 19 Women & Criminal Justice 153 (2009).

See also Diane Klein, Ally McBeal and Her Sisters: A Quantitive and Qualitative Analysis of Representations of Women Lawyers on Prime-Time Television, 18 Loyola Los Angeles Entertainment Law Journal 259 (1997/1998).