Vol. 35, No. 1, Winter 2007

More Television Dramas, and Growth
Of Cable TV, Redefine Women's Roles

From "Xena: Warrior Princess" to "Judging Amy," television shows are redefining women in dramatic roles by telling diverse stories about their lives, a University of Michigan analysis shows.

In the mid-1990s, more dramas were created to feature female characters as the primary protagonists—and many of these shows succeeded, says Amanda Lotz, assistant professor of communication studies.

"It took the success of several single female characters, as well as changes in business of television, to redefine how women are portrayed on television," Lotz says.

She says she hopes subsequent female dramas will explore many stories about women's lives that still are not represented, involving characters who are lesbian, not white, in stable relationships, or who lack rewarding careers.

Lotz's analysis explores 16 female-centered dramas airing in the late 1990s through early 2000s. The shows are based around one or more women, and notably expand from the character-types and stories common in television's past.

The number of female-centered dramas jumped to 14 in 1985-1994, up from eight shows during 1975-1984. In 1995-2005 the number jumped to about 37 shows, peaking in 2000 as television executives and advertisers saw the value of developing strategies to target the female audience.

Focus on Powerful Women Still Reads
Like a Fashion Critique, CJR Writer Says

In “A Girl's Got the Gavel! But What's She Wearing?” (CJR Daily, published by Columbia Journalism Review, Jan. 24, 2007), Liz Cox Barrett skewers print and broadcast journalists for refusing to get out of the closet when covering powerful women such as Nancy Pelosi, first woman speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives. Here’s an excerpt:

“Here we were, wishfully thinking that the appearance of a certain New York Times' Thursday Style article last week ("Speaking Chic to Power") heralded the end, as a Times' Style piece often does, of a tired development -- the development, in this case, being Nancy Pelosi's Wardrobe as News. … Silly us. We'd forgotten about television news, where -- with hours of airtime to fill and anchors apparently willing to say just about anything that crosses their minds in order to fill those hours --- the Pelosi-focused wardrobe analysis persists. Not content to leave this type of assessment to the ladies of print and their "Living" and "Style" sections, the men of network and cable news got into the game last night, inspired, it seems, by Pelosi's unavoidable presence alongside Vice President Cheney at the State of the Union address.”

Barrett than provides evidence that too many men with microphones cannot see past a woman’s appearance in talking about her political role. Comments about her change of clothing from day into evening for President Bush’s speech, the color of her garb, whether she looked fresh or fatigued – all on the evening when Bush, with the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, came to Pelosi’s “house” to face his first non-Republican Congress since he took office. There were many important things to discuss, and Pelosi is at the center of all of them – but the commentary had to include remarks about her mint-colored jacket? Read more at http://www.cjrdaily.org/behind_the_news/a_girls_got_the_gavel_but_what.php

Nurses Find Media Image
Needs Intensive Care

The Center for Nursing Advocacy has announced its fourth "Golden Lamp Awards," the group's annual list of the best and worst media portrayals of nursing, still largely a female-dominated profession. The 2006 list includes a range of media from all over the world.

Among the "worst" award recipients were the Nobel Prize-winning Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Italian political leader Silvio Berlusconi, nurse recruiting campaigner Johnson & Johnson, and hit Hollywood shows including ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and Fox's "House."

"'Grey's Anatomy' and 'House' are the worst offenders," said Sandy Summers, head of the nursing advocacy group. "These globally popular shows portray nurses as brainless servants, while heroic physicians provide all important care -- much of which nurses do in real life, like defibrillation, triage and patient education. With a nursing crisis stemming in large part from undervaluation of the profession, this is unacceptable."

The Center's "worst" list cited Médecins Sans Frontières for refusing to consider a slight name change to credit the nurses and others who do most of its work; Johnson & Johnson for recruiting commercials that reinforced handmaiden and emotional "angel" stereotypes; and Mattel for selling a doll called the "Nurse Quacktitioner," which suggested that nurse practitioners are quacks. Berlusconi received an "Evolutionary Dead End" award for telling the press that his own Cleveland Clinic nurses were less attractive than Italian nurses.

For details on the Center’s analysis and fuller descriptions of the media portrayals it singled out, visit http://www.nursingadvocacy.org/press/releases/golden/2006/rel.html

WICT Foundation Announces
Best Companies for Women in Cable

The Women in Cable and Telecommunications (WICT) Foundation, in collaboration with Working Mother Media, announced in November the results of the 2006 PAR Initiative, which examines and ranks companies in the cable telecommunications industry according to three criteria: pay equity, advancement opportunities and resources for work/life support (hence the PAR acronym). Forty companies participated in the 2006 PAR Initiative.

Cox Communications, Inc., is the 2006 recipient of WICT’s Forerunner Accolade for the Best Operator for Women in Cable. Discovery Communications, Inc., is the recipient of the award for Best Programmer for Women in Cable.

Three of the most significant trends were:

• Pay: The number of companies that conduct basic internal pay equity surveys jumped from 31.25% in 2005 to 41.03% in 2006.

• Advancement: The cable industry does not have enough women in technology especially to lead new product development teams and to market to women. Only 27.16% of all corporate/headquarters technology employees are women, up from 26.5% in 2005. Only 15.57% of technology project managers are women, down from 19.9% in 2005). As a proportion of all employees and managers, women are much more likely to be found in an operator call center than in IT and senior management positions.

• Resources for work-life support: For the second year in a row, 100% of operators offer flexwork schedules. Elder care referral is now offered by 65% of cable companies. Forty-five percent of companies participating in the survey offer after school/vacation care, up from 43.8% in 2005. Unfortunately, the number of cable companies offering back-up child care declined to 45% in 2006 from a peak of 61.3% in 2004 and 53.1% in 2005.

The full PAR Executive Report can be found at www.wict.org/WICT/Foundation/PAR/2006.

Research in Depth: Speaking of Jennifer Lopez: Discourses of Iconicity and Identity Formation Among Latina Audiences

Research in Depth: The Wounded Community: Mother-blaming in Journalistic Accounts of Maternal Infanticide

Commentary: Discrimination Against Working Moms Apparently Not Newsworthy

Plus News Briefs, People and Book Reviews

Media Report to Women has hard copies of back issues dating to its founding in 1972. Indispensable for research!