LOS ANGELES — Academy Award-winning actor Geena Davis says achieving gender parity on screen is simple.

“Just go through (the script) and cross out a bunch of male first names and put female first names. That’s all you have to do,” Davis told the audience during a panel Saturday at AT&T’s SHAPE media conference.

Davis joined fellow actor Mayim Bialik on stage at the conference to discuss how gender parity in media can create social change. The conversation revolved around the need for diversity on screen.

The panel was born from a study conducted by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media that found women felt encouraged to pursue scientific, medical and engineering careers because of “X-Files” character Dana Scully, an FBI agent and medical doctor. Of the women surveyed in the study, 63 percent of those working in a STEM field said Scully served as a role model for them growing up.