representation of women in sitcoms over the years

In this weeks discussion, Ms. O'Connel gave us insight into the connection between the women's rights movement and how women are represented on television. When sitcoms first started airing, they were often shows representing cookie-cutter American families, such as the 1950s television show "Leave it To Beaver". This show revolves around the life of the Cleaver's, a family with a working dad, two boys, and a stay at home mother who is always dressed nicely and is always in the kitchen. Shows like this encouraged the image of a stay at home classic American wife and supported the longstanding tradition of "republican motherhood". Republican motherhood is the idealistic idea that an American women's job is to educate and prime their boys into strong and independent leaders. The pressure to keep America's tradition of raising independence kept women from voting for their right to vote in the 1920s, and since then it has kept women back from stepping into rolls that were deemed, male. By having the idealistic female being represented as the republican mother, TV was able to keep women at bay by being happy with raising a family. As time went on the world wars passed, giving females opportunities to work, females realized that their advancement would not hurt their privilege. The second wave of feminism, brought on by Betty Friedan's book in 1963 "The Feminine Mystique", encouraged women to fight for quality, and that fight soon matriculated to women on TV. In the 1970s sitcom "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", viewers are introduced to a working single woman making her way in the city. In the one particular episode that OC showed us, Mary had just found out that the male who previously had her job position was paid 50 dollars an hour more than her. When confronting her boss he said the only reason why was that Mary was female, and in fact, she was doing a better job than her male counterpart. Mary fights for her right of equal pay against her male boss, which is a huge step for women in TV, because before they were never encouraged to fight against a male opinion. The drastic contrast between the picture-perfect housewife of 50s television, versus the independent women of 70s television shows just how much progress the women's movement made in those years. Those women served as role models for the girls growing up viewing them because in their day they were examples of the idealistic women. Growing up I watched "That so Raven", "Kim Possible", and "Hannah Montana", all TV shows which feature a female lead, which definitely encouraged me to be independent. Kim possible showed me that I could fight crime, while Raven showed me that girls can get into shenanigans too, and Hannah Montana showed me I could be a star. Without these independent female roles on my screen, my experience of being female would be drastically different and limited. Because women have fought for their equality, their image has changed and broadened, and I hope TVs image continues to grow with it.