There are three different levels of representation: primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary representations are depictions in a story where a character's gender makes an impact on the outcome of the plot, or if they are stereotypically associated with certain genders, such as men being associated with science fields while women having more to do with domestic fields (e.g., preschool teacher versus astrophysicist). Secondary representations are characters that are gender neutral, or who can be either masculine or feminine, whereas tertiary representations are those in which there is no plot implication at all but the character's gender is more incidental and exists more as a representation of the social norms that portray men and women as a part of symmetric gender roles (e.g., the portrayal of women being physically weaker than men). I also think it's important to note this in regards to media because there is a common trope in media where female characters begin taking more prominent positions as they age.