Also known as Bechdel–Wallace test
A three-question check on a film or script: does it have at least two women, do they talk to each other, and do they talk about something other than a man? It measures whether those conversations exist, not how well a story treats women.
The test comes from Alison Bechdel's comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. In a 1985 strip called "The Rule", a character explains the three requirements a movie has to meet before she will see it. Bechdel credits the idea to her friend Liz Wallace and prefers the name Bechdel–Wallace test. A common variant adds that the two women must be named characters.
Its strength is that it is quick and countable. Its limits come from the same place. A script can pass on one exchange of small talk and still sideline every woman in it, and a film built around a single strong woman can fail. Read a result as a question about the cast and its conversations, not as a verdict on the story.
For a writer, the useful version runs on the draft rather than the finished film. Note which characters speak to each other and about what, and who drives a scene rather than reacting to it. Inkwell's Bechdel Plus skill runs the Bechdel–Wallace test alongside five other representation lenses, cites the scenes and lines each result rests on, and reads a character's identity only from what the script states.
A work passes if it has at least two women, who talk to each other, about something other than a man. Many people add that the women must be named characters, as the Bechdel Test Movie List does.
Cartoonist Alison Bechdel published it in a 1985 strip of Dykes to Watch Out For and credits the idea to her friend Liz Wallace, which is why it is also called the Bechdel–Wallace test.
No. The test checks that women talk to each other about something besides men. It says nothing about how well those characters are written: a pass can still sideline every woman in the story, and a fail can center one.
List the scenes where two or more women speak, then read what they talk about. Bechdel Plus does this across a full draft and reports the scenes and lines behind each result, so you can see when a pass rests on a single exchange.
