The History of the Single Working Women Sitcom

While I originally wrote a paper for school about the history of sitcoms that revolve around the lives and careers of single women, I decided to adapt it for this blog, since it pertains to the topic and I hope that you find it interesting and informative. I also cited some sources if you're interested in further reading.

Since its inception as an entertainment medium in the 1950s, television has been more concerned with the representation and interests of women than film. It began as a way of attracting housewives to advertising, but then over time developed further into one of the only outlets for women to see themselves accurately exemplified in the media through the development of “single working women” sitcoms. Today, the television industry continues to employ more women and in higher roles than the film industry. The utilization of female talent allows for women to be better represented and to see their lives and experiences reflected in culture.

During the 1950s, when the television business was first developed, it was financed entirely by advertising. Because women were predominantly housewives at this time, and therefore more available to watch TV daily, advertisers knew that they had to appeal to women’s interests in order to sell them their products. It was this that began a trend of representing women and their issues and interests on television in a way that was never done in film. (Makers) Family sitcoms centered around female protagonists in their married lives. I Love Lucy, the first sitcom to feature a female lead character, starred Lucille Ball who was also the first pregnant woman on a major network show, and half of the first interracial TV couple. The show also featured one of the first female writers in TV history, Madelyn Pugh. Ball’s character, Lucy Ricardo, challenged gender stereotypes and was often seen as unladylike due to her affinity for physical and slapstick comedy, and her unwillingness to ever listen to her husband’s wishes. After the series ended, Ball became the first female CEO of a major production company in 1960. (Bitette)

While examples of single female leads were nonexistent in the 50s, the 1960s gave rise to better examples of smart, independent women. As the feminist movement progressed into the mainstream, and women began entering the workforce in greater numbers, television made a better effort to keep up with the times. Shows featured women’s issues in their plots as well as hired female writers and directors, and so the single working women sitcom made its way into mainstream culture. (Bianculli)

Although Mary Tyler Moore is often given credit for being the first single woman on TV, That Girl actually came 5 years before in 1966. Marlo Thomas played Ann Marie, an actress who moves to New York City, inspired by Thomas’ real life experience as a single woman and actress. Thomas was also the creator of the show, but was not credited as such, as she was made to downplay her role in order to come across as “nonthreatening”. In the series finale, Thomas fought hard for her character to remain single as a way of expressing the legitimacy of the single woman’s lifestyle and not portraying marriage as the ultimate goal for women. (Knegt)

With a total of 29 Emmy wins, four of which for Mary Tyler Moore’s performance, The Mary Tyler Moore Show is regarded as one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. Moore played Mary Richards, a single woman who moves to Minneapolis after breaking up with her long-time boyfriend, and gets a job working as an associate producer on a nightly TV show. Not only was Mary a funny, independent single woman living on her own, her friends Rhoda, Phyllis, Sue Ann, and Georgette were as well. Each of them proved that women can carry their own sitcoms and eventually spun off their own series. (Knegt) The show also highlighted women’s issues of the time, including a episode in which Mary discovers she is being paid less than the man who did her job before her, despite being better at the job, because she is a woman. Unlike Ann Marie’s character in That Girl, Mary never had a steady boyfriend. She dated, had a sex life, and was the first female sitcom character to take birth control pills. (Bianculli) While her friends got married and divorced over the course of their respective series, the men were never the focal point, and Mary stayed single right through to the end. It was never about her finding a husband; her work was the main focus, and the show portrayed the workplace as a family: one that included women in it. (The Seventies) It was during this time that many series sought out female writers in order to tap into women’s issues and interests. This increase in women behind the camera led to more women in front of it and more complex female characters. (Makers)

In the 1980s, Candice Bergen stared as Murphy Brown, the shows title character, a television news reporter in Washington D.C. who begins the show straight from rehab after suffering from alcohol addiction. As TV writers were beginning to realize that viewers often embraced characters because of their flaws rather than in spite of them, Murphy Brown showed that flawed female characters were the most complex, and challenged audiences to route for a complex female character that had never before been seen. Unlike the female protagonists that came before her, Murphy was not made to be a role model. (Bianculli) The show tapped into the controversial topics of the time, and dealt with the issue of single motherhood. Murphy eventually got pregnant and decided to raise the child on her own. This caused the series to be criticized by Vice President Dan Quayle for “disrespecting family values”. (Knegt)

With the 1990s came subscription paid networks. This allowed for more risks to be taken in terms of programming as the FCC’s guidelines did not apply, nor did the networks rely on advertising. HBO was able to produce stories about women that could never have made it on broadcast television. Sex and the City is one of the most iconic shows of this time. The series centers around sex columnist, Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, and her friends as they experience and comment on the sexual politics of sex and dating in New York City. Known for allowing its female lead characters to freely discuss and openly express their opinions, the show questions the status quo of modern relationships and people’s ideas about sex. Most storylines pushed the envelope, and showed the characters in unusual but hilariously funny sexual situations and predicaments. (Biannculli)

Beginning in 2006, 30 Rock featured a more modern interpretation of Mary Richards in Liz Lemon, a single woman working as a writer on a NBC sketch comedy series. While the show is more about a woman producing television in New York than a woman being single, many of the shows storylines often focused on Liz Lemon’s doomed romantic life, often with humor. As the creator, writer, and star of her own show, Tina Fey broke away from the traditional roles that women had played on TV in the past. (Knegt)

Probably the most recent of single women shows, HBO’s Girls centers around Hannah Horvath, a twenty-four-year-old writer living in New York City with her friends, often struggling with relationship and friendship problems, mental illness, and the uncertainty of the future. The show with the youngest protagonists, Girls often portrays its lead characters as immature, selfish, and narcissistic clearly not concerned with portraying women as flawed or unsympathetic. Lena Dunham became a voice of her generation, as she states in the pilot episode, and gave voice to the millennial female experience, often centering around social media culture and casual dating. The friendships featured in Girls are not loving and supportive as much as they are jealous and spiteful, thus adding to the complexity of female characters. Also tackling the issue of single motherhood, the series ended two weeks ago with Hannah as a single mother, struggling to deal with the responsibilities of motherhood. Like 30 Rock, Girls also featured a female showrunner who starred in the series as well. (Bianculli)

Today, women still have more influence in the television industry, both on and off camera, than in film. In 2016, 42% of series regulars on TV were female. Streamed programming featured the most women in the principal cast (44.2%), followed by broadcast (41.6%) and cable (41%). Conversely, female characters held only 28.7% of all speaking roles in film. 18% of stories evaluated were gender balanced, with film (8%) the least likely to depict balance and cable the most likely (23%). Film was less likely than broadcast or cable to show women 40 years of age or older with women making up only 21.4% of characters over 40. Streaming was the most likely, with females filling 33.1% of characters over 40. (Smith)

This discrepancy also carried over to women behind the camera. In 2016, only 3.4% of all film directors were female. Among TV series, broadcast had the highest percentage of directors (17.1%) and streaming the lowest (11.8%). When compared to streaming (25.2%), females were the least likely to have screenwriting credits in film (10.8%) and the most likely in broadcast (31.6%). Of show creators, 22% were female on broadcast networks, 22.3% on cable channels, and 25% on streaming series. As for women in studio and network leadership positions, 45.1% of Chairs, Presidents, Executive Vice Presidents and Senior Vice Presidents of television were women as opposed to 33.1% women in film. And more women behind the camera, means more women in front of it. All stories featuring a female director had 5.4% more women on screen than those stories without female direction. For writers and creators, the relationship was more pronounced (10.7% and 12.6% increase, respectively). (Smith)

Women’s presence on television began as a way for advertisers to sell their products to women. This set the precedent for representing women’s interests in the television business moving forward. Single working women sitcoms became a force for the feminist movement within the television industry. Shows like I Love Lucy, That Girl, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Murphy Brown paved the way for Sex and the City, 30 Rock, Girls, and many others such as My Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Insecure, Broad City and 2 Broke Girls by proving that women can be funny and that shows about female characters have an audience. The utilization of female talent, behind and in front of the camera, may be the reason that television is so successful today. Single women are not leaving our television screens any time soon.

Works Cited

Bianculli, D. (2016). The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to The Walking Dead,

How TV Became Terrific. New York, NY: DoubleDay.

Bitette, N. (2016, April 26). All of the things that made Lucille Ball a woman before her time.

Knegt, P. (2012, April 13). Before "Girls": A Television History of the Single Woman in the City.

PBS (2014). Makers in Hollywood.

The Secret History of Women in Television. Bust Magazine.

The Seventies. CNN, 2015. Web.

Smith, S. L., PhD, Choueiti, M., & Pieper, K., PhD. (2016). Inclusion of Invisibility?

Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity in Entertainment. USC Annenberg

School for Communication and Journalism.