Women in Arts and Entertainment [1 ed.] 9781680777581, 9781680782899

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WOMEN’S LIVES IN HISTORY

Women in Arts and Entertainment

Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

MARCINIAK

Women in

Arts and

Entertainment By Kristin Marciniak

Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Women in

Arts and

Entertainment BY KRISTIN MARCINIAK

Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

CONTENT CONSULTANT

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Amanda D. Lotz Professor, Departments of Communication Studies and Screen Arts and Cultures University of Michigan

Essential Library

An Imprint of Abdo Publishing | abdopublishing.com

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WOMEN’S LIVES

abdopublishing.com Published by Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO, PO Box 398166, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55439. Copyright © 2017 by Abdo Consulting Group, Inc. International copyrights reserved in all countries. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Essential Library™ is a trademark and logo of Abdo Publishing. Printed in the United States of America, North Mankato, Minnesota 052016 092016

Cover Photo: Shutterstock Images Interior Photos: Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images, 4–5; Kevin Karzin/AP Images, 7; Lev Radin/Shutterstock Images, 9; AP Images, 12–13, 22, 68–69; P. A. Dearborn/AP Images, 16–17; Charles Sykes/AP Images, 19, 32; Greg Allen/Invision/AP Images, 21; Everett Collection/ Shutterstock Images, 23, 49, 71; PR WENN Photos/Newscom, 24–25; Ed Bailey/AP Images, 27; Jerome Delay/AP Images, 30–31; S. Bukley/ Shutterstock Images, 33, 88; Columbia Pictures/Photofest NYC, 34–35, 37; Rene Macura/AP Images, 40; John Shearer/Invision/AP Images, 41; Phil Stafford/Shutterstock Images, 43; CBS/Photofest NYC, 44–45, 47; Jordan Strauss/Invision for Producers Guild of America/AP Images, 53; Shutterstock Images, 51, 70, 72–73, 92–93, 96; NBC/Photofest NYC, 54–55, 62; Helga Esteb/Shutterstock Images, 58, 61; Casey-Werner Co./Wind Dancer Prod./Album/Newscom, 59; iStockphoto, 63; Photofest NYC, 64–65; Nancy R. Schiff/Getty Images, 74–75; Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Images, 77; Gene Young/Newscom, 79; Panoramic/ZumaPress/Newscom, 80–81; Hart Preston/ The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images, 83; Everett Collection/Newscom, 84–85; Rena Schild/Shutterstock Images, 90; Debby Wong/ Shutterstock Images, 91

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Editor: Megan Anderson Series Designer: Maggie Villaume Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Marciniak, Kristin, author. Title: Women in arts and entertainment / by Kristin Marciniak. Description: Minneapolis, MN : Abdo Publishing, [2017] | Series: Women’s lives in history | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015960336 | ISBN 9781680782899 (lib. bdg.) | ISBN 9781680774832 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Women artists--Juvenile literature. | Women entertainers---Juvenile literature. | Women in the professions--Juvenile literature. Classification: DDC 700--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015960336

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Contents Chapter One

The Brightest Star in Modern Ballet 4

Chapter Two

Women in Dance 12

Chapter T hree

Women in Theater 24

Chapter Four

Women in Film 34

Chapter Five

Women in Television

Chapter Six

Women in Comedy 54

Chapter Seven

Women in Music 64

Chapter Eight

Women in Art 74

Chapter Nine

Women in Journalism 84

Chapter Ten

Women in Digital Media 92

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Additional Resources Timeline

104

98

Source Notes

Essential Facts

106

100

Index

Glossary

110

102

About the Author 112

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Copeland has risen to the top of the ballet world.

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CHAPTER ONE

The Brightest Star in Modern Ballet

M

isty Copeland’s rise to the top of the ballet world is an inspiring story about hard work and perseverance. Her transformation from a shy, anxious child into a confident, well-spoken woman

is the result of years of dedication to her craft and a desire to show the world

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Copeland is redefining ballet in America. She is mixed-race—African American, Italian, and German—but identifies primarily as African American. Most professional ballerinas are Caucasian. While ballet dancers are known for being long and lean, Copeland’s muscular, curvy frame is a mere five feet two inches (1.5 m) tall.

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women of color belong in classical dance.

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In June 2015, the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in New York

PROJECT PLIÉ Misty Copeland is an ambassador and adviser for ABT’s Project Plié, a program

City named Copeland principal

designed to increase racial and ethnic representation in ballet companies across

dancer. A principal dancer is the

the United States. In addition to education, the program provides scholarships and training for promising young dancers. It is a personal project for Copeland,

highest rank in a professional

who remembers struggling with her identity as a young dancer. “I would

ballet company. She is the first

eventually come back to the conviction that the stage on which I performed was

female African American to hold

brighter for having me, even if some in the audience or dancing beside me didn’t agree,” Copeland said.2

that role in the ABT’s 75-year history.1

Finding Her Place Most ballerinas begin training between the ages of three and five. Copeland didn’t take her first class until she was 13. Her teacher, Cynthia Bradley, recognized Copeland had some characteristics of a ballet dancer—a small head, sloping shoulders, long legs, big feet, and a narrow rib cage. She learned choreography quickly, and was able to dance en pointe after just a short period of training. En pointe is dancing on the tips of the toes, a common movement in ballet. Copeland was a ballet prodigy. But because she started so late, she had only four years to learn everything about the craft if she wanted Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

to make it her profession. And she did want to make it her profession. When she was dancing, Copeland didn’t have to think

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about her difficult home life. Her mother, Sylvia, was often in difficult relationships, and the family had

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to scrape together money for meals. At one point, Copeland was living in a motel with her mother and six siblings. “It was probably the worst time in my childhood when ballet found me,” Copeland said. “I finally found a place where I felt like I belonged.”3 She threw herself into practice, even moving in with Bradley and her family so she could focus on her training. This arrangement strained Copeland’s relationship with her family, so when she was 15, she moved back home. She continued taking classes and performing while completing high school. In 2000, when she was 18, Copeland moved from California to New York City to join

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The Firebird The ABT prepared Copeland for a position in its Studio Company, and she joined in 2000. Despite Copeland’s late start, her teacher recognized her potential as a ballet dancer.

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the ABT.

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In a company of 80 dancers, she was the only African-American woman.4 It would remain that way for a decade. In 2007, Copeland was promoted to soloist, the first African American to hold the role in 20 years.5 She quickly gained recognition for her standout performances, but none defined her career as much as 2012’s The Firebird. Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky designed the piece specifically for Copeland and two other ballerinas, who shared the title role. It was the part of a lifetime but also extremely strenuous. Copeland noticed a severe pain in her left shin during rehearsals. Afraid of losing the part, she hid the injury and continued dancing. Her debut in the role wasn’t just important for her career but for all African-American women in ballet. During her first performance, African Americans filled half of the seats in the Metropolitan Opera House, an unprecedented occurrence.

MARIA TALLCHIEF One of the first great American ballerinas was Maria Tallchief, whose career was at its peak from the 1940s to the 1960s. Tallchief was born to an American Indian father and a Scottish-Irish mother. She was one of the five so-called “Oklahoma Indian ballerinas,” who were all born on American Indian reservations around the

Copeland’s debut in The Firebird received rave reviews. Her injury, however, grew worse.

same time.6 At age 17, Tallchief joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a touring

Copeland was diagnosed with six

ballet company. There she met and married choreographer George Balanchine.

black-line fractures. That meant

He created a number of roles for Tallchief, including his versions of The Firebird Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker.

she had near-complete breaks in her tibia, the bone between

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her knee and ankle. An injury this

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Copeland appeared on Broadway in On the Town in 2015.

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severe would be career-ending for many dancers. Copeland faced a brutal recovery. She spent weeks just learning how to walk again.

Crowning Achievements By the summer of 2013, Copeland’s recovery was complete. She returned to the stage as well as the public eye. She starred in a commercial for Under Armour athletic wear. She also published two books in 2014: Life in Motion, an autobiography, and Firebird, an

NOT JUST A BALLERINA Misty Copeland has made headlines with her non-ABT performances. In 2009,

illustrated children’s book. In June 2015, Copeland

she was cast in a video by music icon Prince. Prince also hired her to dance during select shows of his 2010 tour. In the summer of 2015, she had a two-week stint as Ivy Smith, one of the lead roles in the Broadway musical On the Town. It was a part that required her to dance, act, and sing, something she had never

assumed the lead role in Swan Lake, a first for an African-American

done before. In the show, Ivy Smith is a ballerina who takes singing lessons, just

dancer. Just days later, she was

like Copeland.

promoted to principal dancer. It was the culmination of a dream that began with her first lesson at age 13. Copeland has acknowledged her path to success wouldn’t have

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been possible without other women, such as African-American ballerina

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Raven Wilkinson, helping pave the way.

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Copeland is one of many women who have persevered and risen to the top of the world of arts and entertainment. Dance, theater, film, television, comedy, music, art, and journalism have all evolved

WOMEN OF COLOR IN BALLET

over the past century thanks to the fearless women who entered these male-dominated industries. They have changed the way we laugh, the way we think, and the

Stella Abrera, who celebrated her twentieth year with the ABT in 2015, was promoted alongside Copeland. She is the first Filipino American to hold the position of principal dancer in the company.7 But Copeland and Abrera aren’t the only women to break barriers in the ballet world. In 1955, Raven Wilkinson became the first African-American woman to be hired by a major ballet company. She danced with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in New York City. Evelyn

way we relate to one another.

Cisneros, the first Hispanic prima ballerina, danced with the San Francisco Ballet

Above all, they have given voices

from 1976 until 1999.8

to millions of other women

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wanting to be heard.

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Martha Graham is often credited with helping transform dance into serious art.

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CHAPTER TWO

Women in Dance

W

omen have long been center stage in the dance world, but up until the 1920s, there were very few women behind the scenes. That changed in the early 1900s with women who

pioneered new techniques and made long-lasting impacts on dance. Isadora Duncan introduced the concept of modern dance in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s. Duncan focused on freer movement rather than more rigid movements like those commonly associated with ballet. Martha Graham followed closely behind, starting her dance school in the 1920s. Duncan and Graham are credited with transforming what was once

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generations of dancers and choreographers to come.

The Anthropologists Katherine Dunham started dancing in her late teens, but she didn’t think it would turn into a career. However, she kept returning to it as she studied anthropology at the University of Chicago. After graduating in 1934, she secured a fellowship in the Caribbean. This allowed her to study indigenous

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considered a frivolous pastime into serious art. They laid the foundation for

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dance traditions. Dunham spent 18 months in Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad, and Haiti, gaining

MARTHA GRAHAM Martha Graham was one of the first modern dancers who challenged common conceptions about what dance was and what it could be. She established her own dance company and school in 1926. Graham took a different approach, saying, “I wanted to begin not with characters or ideas, but with movements. . . . I wanted significant movement. I did not want it to be beautiful or fluid. I wanted it to be fraught with inner meaning, with excitement and surge.”1 Graham’s school became known for teaching a special technique called “contract and

the trust of her subjects so she could learn and perform their ritual dances. Dunham returned to the United States in 1936. In 1938, she

release.” Through contract and release, tension is created as dancers contract a

created her first signature dance,

muscle, then movement flows as the muscle relaxes. Graham’s techniques are

L’Ag’Ya, based on a folktale from

still taught today, and her approach to movement has inspired many young dancers to make their careers on the stage.

Martinique. This was the first time dances from an African culture were presented onstage. Dunham

then focused on the African-American dances of New York City. Her 1940 performance captured popular dances from Haiti and New York’s Harlem neighborhood. This led to Dunham’s next job: co-choreographing Broadway’s first all-black musical, Cabin in the Sky, in 1941. She also starred in the Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

lead role. Dunham opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater in 1945. For ten years, she taught the Dunham Technique, a combination of classical ballet and African, Caribbean, and African-American

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folk dances. Students also studied acting, voice techniques, and the cultural importance of dance.

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Debilitating arthritis forced Dunham into semiretirement in 1965, but she continued her quest to weave traditional Caribbean and African movements into American dance. In 1983, she received a Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the arts. Another anthropologist was Pearl Primus. Primus was born in Trinidad, and her family moved to New York City when she was two years old. She received a scholarship to the New Dance Group, which offered dance lessons to professionals and children. In 1943, Primus made her debut with the New Dance Group at the 92nd Street Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association. She gave her first solo recital in 1943, and eventually opportunities opened up for Primus to dance on Broadway. She created her own company in 1944. Primus worked to make African dance an accepted and important art form among American audiences. She made her first of many trips to Africa in 1948. There she studied African heritage and cultural dances, which were reflected in the dances

The dominant dance styles in the United States before the 1900s descended

dance she choreographed

from Europe and Russia. But American dance quickly gained other influences. In 1914, jazz and ragtime left the confines of the African-American community and became widely accepted by white audiences. This music launched a new type

Primus also studied dance forms in

of dance that was completely American. Jazz-inspired social dances served as a

the Caribbean, and her travels led

gateway for professional dancers to break away from waltzes, ballet, and other

to a PhD in African and Caribbean

traditional dances.

studies from New York University.

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was African Ceremonial (1944).

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AMERICAN DANCE

she choreographed. The first

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Dunham appeared in Tropical Revue on Broadway in 1943.

Combining Techniques Twyla Tharp started her first dance troupe in 1964 after graduating from college. The all-female group was known for avant-garde performances minimalistic in both movement and stage design. Some dances were performed without any music, just the beat of the dancers’ feet hitting the floor. Tharp’s style became more theatrical as the mid-1970s approached. In 1973, she choreographed Deuce Coupe for the Joffrey Ballet. It combined both classical and modern dance. Deuce Coupe was set to the soothing sounds of American rock band the Beach Boys. The dancers ran, slid, and stumbled across the stage, then broke into popular dance moves such as the mashed potato before returning to their classical roots. During her long career, Tharp has choreographed

URBAN BUSH WOMEN

more than 130 dances.2 In addition to her own dance company, Twyla Tharp Dance, she has

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American Ballet Theatre,

in 1984 with the goal of telling the stories of populations that have traditionally been ignored. Through the use of contemporary dance, music, and text, UBW explores the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of people with African roots. Zollar’s dancers come from many different dance backgrounds, including ballet and modern dance. The UBW perform around the world to share their heritage while challenging traditionally accepted ideas about dance.

New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and Martha

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choreographed for the

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar founded the Urban Bush Women (UBW) dance company

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Graham Company. Her unique style requires dancers to master complex and intricate movements that seem to defy gravity. In addition to her work with professional dance companies, Tharp has choreographed for several films and Broadway productions. In 2002, she created Movin’ Out, a jukebox musical set to the songs of singer and songwriter Billy Joel. The story was told entirely through dance, and Tharp won a Tony Award for best choreography. She returned to Broadway in 2010 with another jukebox musical, Come Fly Away, set to the songs of legendary singer Frank Sinatra. Today, Tharp continues to tour with her company, bringing her eclectic style to dance enthusiasts all over the world.

Modern Dancing Judith Jamison joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) in 1965. Ailey’s company included people of all races and nationalities, but he primarily focused on African-American themes. In 1972, Ailey created Cry, a tribute to the sorrows and joys experienced by African-American women throughout history. Jamison, the company’s lead dancer, performed the 15-minute piece alone. The solo was technically demanding and required incredible stamina, and her success with it made her an international superstar. Jamison left AAADT in 1980 to pursue a career on Broadway and in choreography. In 1988, she Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

started her own dance company, the Jamison Project. That same year, Ailey fell ill. He asked Jamison to

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take over the AAADT after his death. In 1989, she became the company’s artistic director. “Somebody

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Tharp won two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award during her career as a choreographer.

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said to me these are big shoes to fill. But that’s not what this is about. This is about trying to wear my own shoes,” Jamison said.3 The road ahead wasn’t easy. The company was a million dollars in debt when Jamison took

RISING STAR Few dancers have risen to stardom as quickly as Maddie Ziegler. First seen on Lifetime’s Dance Moms, Maddie has become the public face of singer Sia. Maddie was only 11 when the recording artist asked her to star in the music

charge. Under her leadership, the company resolved its debt

video for “Chandelier” in 2014. In the video, Maddie writhes, jumps, and flails in a

by 1993, and by 2008 had a

nude-colored leotard and Sia’s signature platinum blond wig. Since then, Maddie

$22 million endowment.4 Jamison

has collaborated with Sia on two more music videos and acted in the feature film The Book of Henry.

turned the AAADT into the world’s most successful modern dance troupe before she retired in 2011.

Jamison has received several awards and honors, including a Kennedy Center Honor and a National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to an artist in the United States. Recent star Sonya Tayeh took a different approach to dance. She honed her dance moves in the club scene of Detroit, Michigan, from go-go dancing to electronic music at raves and dance clubs. Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

In 2004, she moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as a choreographer. In 2008, she became a choreographer on the fourth season of So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). She was a fan favorite,

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creating gritty dances reminiscent of her days in Detroit.

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Tayeh is particularly known for combat jazz. It is a style of dance she invented that focuses on aggressive, athletic, and angular movements. Full of flailing limbs and jabbing elbows and feet, Tayeh’s dances are as beautiful as they are fierce, telling stories of life, loss, and love. Tayeh’s work on SYTYCD led to collaborations with well-known artists such as Madonna and Miley Cyrus. In 2013, Tayeh joined the off-Broadway production of Kung Fu, a dramatic play about the life of martial artist Bruce Lee. Tayeh’s aggressive choreography was a great way to tell Lee’s story. Today Tayeh continues to divide her time between Los Angeles and New York

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dance scene.

Tayeh was nominated for Emmys in 2013 and 2015 for her routines on So You Think You Can Dance.

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City as she tries to break onto the modern

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Dance

on Broadway C

horeographer Agnes de Mille revolutionized dance on Broadway with 1943’s Oklahoma! Using dance to express the characters’ thoughts and

feelings was a first for the Broadway stage. So was de Mille’s use of ballet as a dream sequence. This became a standard for musicals that followed. De Mille went on to choreograph Carousel (1945) and Brigadoon (1947). Brigadoon melded dance from the Scottish Highlands with ballet and modern dance techniques. De Mille helped raise the standards for dance on Broadway, and professional dancers had more opportunities for steady, well-paying work. Today’s Broadway choreography is just as expressive. In 2000, Susan Stroman directed and choreographed Contact. The musical had three acts, each with a different dance piece. That same year, she directed and choreographed a revival Best Choreography for Contact. Stroman’s biggest hit came the following year with The Producers. She became the first woman to win Tony Awards for both Best Director and Best Choreographer in the same night for the musical. She also choreographed the film version of the musical in 2005. Mille was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 1973.

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of The Music Man. She earned Tony Award nominations for both shows, winning

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Stroman has won four Tony Awards for choreography.

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Audra McDonald, left, and Sanaa Lathan, right, appeared in the 2004 revival of Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.

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CHAPTER THREE

Women in Theater

T

oward the end of the 1800s, American theater grew in popularity. Women not only attended plays, but a significant number entered into theater careers. The number of women who listed

their career as “actress” increased from 4,652 in the 1880s to 15,432 in 1910.1

This increased presence helped women experience economic and social independence for the first time. Other than roles as featured actresses, however, American theater has

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typically been written, scored, directed, and produced by men. Because of this, male stories usually dominated the stage. Women haven’t had many opportunities to bring their stories to life onstage, particularly to Broadway. But a few trailblazers have managed to break through with significant contributions to theater.

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traditionally excluded women behind the scenes. Plays and musicals have

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NO GIRLS ALLOWED It was considered inappropriate for women to be onstage in old England. Even famous playwright William Shakespeare’s greatest female roles—Juliet,

Groundbreaking Playwrights African Americans had a

Cleopatra, and Ophelia—had to be played by men in women’s clothing. That

particularly difficult time breaking

changed when England’s exiled King Charles II reclaimed the throne in 1660.

into theater. Before 1950, mostly

Theater had been abolished during his exile, so people produced secret plays in their homes. All theater was illegal, so it didn’t matter if women took part. The

white playwrights wrote the few

king, a lover of theater, had seen several of these secret performances. Upon his

plays about the African-American

reinstatement to the throne, he signed a charter decreeing that women must

experience. But in 1959, an

play all female roles.

African-American woman finally managed to bring black voices

to Broadway. Lorraine Hansberry moved from Madison, Wisconsin, to New York City in 1950. The civil rights movement was gaining quiet momentum, and Hansberry was transfixed by the activity in her Harlem neighborhood. Her observations prompted her to write A Raisin in the Sun, a play depicting the struggle of an African-American family in a segregated society. A Raisin in the Sun made its Broadway debut in 1959. Not only was it the first play on Broadway written by an African-American woman, it was also the first Broadway show with an African-American Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

director, Lloyd Richards. The show also had an almost entirely African-American cast. Producers were worried nobody would come. They were wrong. A Raisin in the Sun ran for 538 performances over the course of two years.2

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For the first time, African Americans flocked to the theater. Hansberry won the New York Drama

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Wasserstein wrote a dozen plays during her career.

Critics Circle Award for the script, making her the first black woman and youngest playwright to win the prize. A Raisin in the Sun changed Americans’ perception of Africans and African Americans, and despite

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Actress Phylicia Rashad starred in the 2004 version and became the first African-American woman to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Another playwright also managed to bring a different perspective to Broadway. Wendy Wasserstein was admitted to the Yale School of Drama in 1974, and she was the only woman among a

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the play’s age, its themes still hold true today. The play has been revived several times on Broadway.

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dozen men studying playwriting. As a playwright, Wasserstein wanted to tell stories about women like herself who hoped for more than marriage and children. She found critical and commercial success with her eighth play, The Heidi Chronicles. It centers on a professional woman who refuses to change herself to attract a man. After a successful off-Broadway run, The Heidi Chronicles moved to Broadway in 1989. Wasserstein won a Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play. It was the first time a female playwright won an unshared Tony. Wasserstein was one of the first playwrights to give a voice to women who wanted success and fulfillment outside romantic relationships. Her audience was eager for more. In 1993, The Sisters Rosensweig, a play about three Jewish sisters and their relationships, broke the record for the largest number of advance tickets sold for a Broadway play.3 Wasserstein wrote a dozen plays and four books before her death in 2006.

THE ELUSIVE EGOT Only 12 people in the world have earned the elusive EGOT: an Emmy Award for television, a Grammy Award for sound recording, an Oscar for film, and a Tony

Men dominate the director’s chair

Award for theater. Four of them are women: Helen Hayes, Rita Moreno, Audrey

on Broadway. So it was unusual

Hepburn, and Whoopi Goldberg. Well-known performers Barbara Streisand and Liza Minnelli are not included in the list of EGOT winners. Both have received

when Disney approached Julie

awards from each award organization, but at least one of them is an honorary

Taymor in the mid-1990s. Taymor

award rather than competitive.

was known for avant-garde performances that blended

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Music and Choreography

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folklore and puppetry. That’s exactly what Disney wanted for their new musical production of The Lion King. Puppetry is a hallmark of Taymor’s work. In The Lion King, she brought the African savanna to the stage with life-size animals powered by visible puppeteers and expressive masks worn like headdresses. In addition to designing puppets and masks, she was the production’s director and costume designer. Taymor was rewarded for her

LIGHTING BROADWAY

hard work. In 1997, she became

The role of theatrical lighting designer was brand new in the 1930s, and Jean

the first woman to win a Tony

Rosenthal elevated it into an art. Light, she believed, had shape, color, and

Award for Best Director of a

movement. She used those principles to highlight shifting moods onstage,

Musical. She also won the Tony for Best Costume Design. Taymor has gone on to direct plays, films, and musicals. But

helping audiences fall deeper into the story. Under her direction, lighting became more flexible and precise. After her first Broadway show in 1943, she became the go-to lighting designer for Broadway shows, as well as several operas and ballets. Thanks to her leadership, women continue to dominate the lighting field today.

The Lion King remains her passion project. After more than 18 years,

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in more than $6.2 billion worldwide.4 Taymor is involved with nearly every national and international production, supervising the final casting decisions and partaking in the last week of rehearsals. That’s

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it is the most successful theatrical production of all time, bringing

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Taymor used her unique puppetry to bring the animated movie The Lion King to life on a Broadway stage.

what it takes to create, according to the New York Times, “the most memorable, moving and original theater extravaganza in years.”5 Advances in equality since the 1960s still aren’t reflected in the theater community. Women purchase more than 70 percent of New York City theater tickets, but less than 20 percent of productions on Broadway have a female director. Only 10 percent of Broadway plays have female writers.6 Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori are two women trying to increase those percentages. Together they won the 2015 Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Score of a Musical for their musical Fun Home. It was a first for an all-female writing team. Kron, a playwright and performer, wrote the script and lyrics. Tesori, a composer, wrote the score. Fun Home is based on Alison Bechdel’s 2006

THE ADLER METHOD Stella Adler, who began her acting career at the age of four in 1905, believed “theater exists 99 percent in the imagination.”7 She opened the Stella Adler

name. While most musicals

Theater Studio in 1949. Today, many consider her one of the greatest influences

focus on the relationship

in modern acting. She disagreed with the popular idea that actors must rely on

between a leading man and

their previous experiences as the basis for emotions. She pushed her students to reach beyond their lives and create characters with emotions and experiences

woman, Fun Home is about

different from their own. Graduates of her program include movie stars such as

the relationship between

Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, Ellen Burstyn, and Robert DeNiro.

Bechdel and her father. Three actors play Bechdel at

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graphic memoir of the same

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Kron, left, wrote the lyrics while Tesori, right, wrote the music for 2015’s Fun Home.

ages 8, 19, and 45, taking the audience back in time as she comes to grips with her father’s suicide and her own sexuality. The Pulitzer Prize–nominated show is the first mainstream musical about a young lesbian. But Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Kron believes theater is the perfect medium for exploring different lifestyles and situations. She said: I think theater is about what happens when people unlike each other [collide]. . . . That’s what drama is

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made of—when people unlike you reach across that divide.8

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S

Audra McDonald

oprano Audra McDonald started acting at the age

of seven in a local production of The King and I. She’s

been wowing audiences ever since. After graduating from Juilliard School, a prestigious performing arts college in New York City, she tried out for Broadway in 1993. She was immediately cast as Carrie Pipperidge in 1993’s revival of Carousel. She received her first Tony Award for the role. By 2014, McDonald had won six Tony Awards in each acting category: Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, 2014), Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play (A Raisin in the Sun, 2004),

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Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, 2012), and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Carousel, 1993; Master Class, 1996; and Ragtime, 1998). In addition to her work on Broadway, McDonald has appeared in numerous television shows and concerts across the country.

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(1970–)

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Ida Lupino appeared in films such as Let’s Get Married (1937) before becoming a director.

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CHAPTER FOUR

Women in Film

A

s movie making took off at the beginning of the 1900s, filmmakers honed their techniques and developed new ones. Actresses lit up the screen, and female filmmakers worked to

find a place behind the camera. Women found success during the silent film era, from 1894 to 1929. Unfortunately, the transition from silent to sound films in the late 1920s hurt many female filmmakers. Small movie companies consolidated into powerful studios that controlled much of the movie business. As a result, many women were pushed aside as men rose to the top of the film industry. Still, many women found a place in the movie industry.

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Executives and critics alike thought women had no business in the director’s chair. Former actress Ida Lupino attempted to change that with her 1949 drama Not Wanted. The film, Lupino’s first movie, was about teenage pregnancy. Lupino would go on to tackle other sensitive topics with her later films.

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Early Stars

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Lupino wrote and produced Not Wanted. Originally, Lupino

THE FIRST MOVIE STAR

didn’t intend to direct the film.

Born in 1892, Mary Pickford was Hollywood’s first big female star. She started acting in silent films, usually playing innocent young women struggling in an

She was forced to step in when

uncaring world. But Pickford wasn’t as naive as the characters she played on

the original director became ill

screen. In 1919, she cofounded the film studio United Artists with fellow silent

three days into the production.

film actors Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. Working through United Artists allowed her to take charge of her career and produce her own films. In

Though her directorial debut

1927, Pickford became the first woman to have her hand- and footprints outside

was an accident, many in the

Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. With her place in Hollywood history

film industry knew Lupino had

secure, Pickford retired shortly after the dawn of sound films in the 1930s.

fought to produce and direct her entire career.

Lupino was aware women with ambition struggled in Hollywood. She stressed her femininity and tried to fit within the gender standards of the movie business. Although her movies often tackled serious women’s issues, she didn’t identify as a feminist filmmaker. After all, she wanted to keep working. And she did. Throughout the 1950s, Lupino was the only woman in the Directors Guild, which represents television and film directors.1 Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Hollywood was a difficult place for actresses in the 1940s and 1950s, particularly women of color. African Americans were often asked to play characters considered socially inferior to the rest of the cast. But Dorothy Dandridge refused to play slaves or servants. She knew once she was cast in such a

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role, she would never be able to play anything else again.

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Dandridge appeared in Porgy and Bess (1959) with Sidney Poitier.

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Dandridge started out singing in nightclubs, so moviegoers viewed her as a sensual performer. She was the object of actor Harry Belafonte’s desire in Carmen Jones (1954), an African-American retelling of the 1875 opera Carmen. Dandridge’s performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for best actress in a leading role in 1954. It was the first time an African-American woman was nominated for the award.2 That same year, she became the first African-American woman to be featured on the cover of Life magazine. Dandridge didn’t work again for three years because she was advised to turn down any nonleading role. But there weren’t many leading roles for African-American women in the 1950s. Dandridge died in 1965, never reaping the benefits of the civil rights and women’s rights movements. But she paved the way for African-American actresses.

Women in Charge

THE DANGER ZONE Daredevil acts and tricky stunts need more than just a dedicated actor; they

By the 1970s, women started

require professional stunt doubles. The first female stunt double was Rose Helen

taking on more crucial roles

Wenger, who stood in for actress Helen Holmes in the serial films The Hazards

behind the scenes. That includes

jumping from a speeding motorcycle onto a fast-moving train. Despite the

female producers and studio

availability of stuntwomen, until the 1970s, many studios hired stuntmen and

executives. Producers are

had them dress in women’s clothing. Today that practice is illegal.

responsible for financially backing, planning, and coordinating many aspects of a film. In 1980, Sherry

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of Helen from 1914 to 1917. One of Wenger’s many dangerous assignments was

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Lansing became president of production at 20th Century Fox. This made her the first female head of a Hollywood studio. But her road there wasn’t easy. Lansing started out as an actress,

THE BECHDEL TEST Alison Bechdel is a cartoonist whose memoir was the basis of the 2015 Tony Award-winning musical Fun Home. She’s never appeared in or created a film. But a conversation in one of her 1985 comic strips has turned into a standard test for many moviegoers. In the comic strip, one character tells another about her two criteria for a movie: there have to be at least two female characters, and they

then reassessed her goals after

have to discuss something besides a man. Movies that pass the Bechdel Test are

one director tried to mold her into

still surprisingly rare today.

a star. Deciding she only wanted to be herself, she refused his advice and moved into movie production. At the time, women in executive roles faced a lot of prejudice. Before her job at Fox, Lansing was a senior vice president at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). After a promotion, she requested a raise to make her salary equal to that of a man in the same role. She was denied. “I was told that I was earning quite enough for a single woman,” she said.3 Lansing stayed at Fox for three years, releasing many hits such as Nine to Five (1980) and Chariots

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became the highest-ranking woman in Hollywood when she was named chairman of Paramount. Under her leadership, Paramount released several hits, including Forrest Gump (1994), Braveheart (1995), Clueless (1995), and one of the most successful movies of all time, Titanic (1997).

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of Fire (1981). She later left to start a production company with her friend Stanley Jaffe. In 1992, Lansing

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Lansing received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1996.

Kathleen Kennedy is another female producer who has worked her way to the top of the film industry. After starting out at a television studio, Kennedy was hired as a secretary for director, writer, Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

and producer Steven Spielberg. Spielberg took note of Kennedy’s production ideas. He promoted her to assistant and later to producer. In 1982, Kennedy formed Amblin Entertainment with Spielberg

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and her husband, producer Frank Marshall. Amblin made several hits, including ET (1982), Indiana

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Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Back to the Future (1985), and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Kennedy also produced the Jurassic Park franchise, starting with the first film in 1993. In 2012, filmmaker George Lucas handpicked her to take over his popular Star Wars franchise. He named her cochair of his studio, Lucasfilm. When Disney bought Lucasfilm in December 2012, Lucas stepped down and Kennedy became president of the studio. Under Disney, Kennedy helped revive the Star Wars franchise with Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015. The film earned more than $2 billion by February 2015.4 Kennedy has produced more than

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Awards and another 120 nominations.5 She is third on the list of top-earning movie producers.6 Kennedy worked her way up in the movie industry and has produced several award-winning films.

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60 films, which have received 25 Academy

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The Equalizers Some female filmmakers have found success in Hollywood. In 2009, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director for The Hurt Locker. But women still struggle for equality in Hollywood. In 2014, only 21 of the 100 top-grossing films featured a female lead or colead. Only 28 percent of all characters in those movies were female.7 Ninety-three percent of senior movie executives are male. Of the 109 people who directed the 100 top-grossing films in 2014, only two were women.8 One of those directors is Ava DuVernay. An African-American woman, DuVernay spent years doing publicity for movie studios before becoming a filmmaker. She made her first film, a short called Saturday Night Life, in 2006. In 2014, she cowrote and directed Selma, a film about the 1965 voting rights campaign led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. As an African American, DuVernay is unique in an already-small pool of commercially successful female directors. She uses her position and visibility to advocate for lesser-known filmmakers. In 2010, she founded ARRAY, a company focused on the distribution and promotion of films made by women and people of color. Actress Jennifer Lawrence is another standout in the movie industry working to address inequality Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

in Hollywood. By the age of 24, Lawrence had received three Academy Awards nominations and was the highest paid actress in the world. But she still earned less money per movie than her male costars. She addressed the issue in Lenny, a newsletter about women’s issues. The problem, she says,

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is that women have historically been afraid to stand up for themselves for fear of coming across as

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DuVernay, center, is committed to advocating for diversity in filmmaking.

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themselves. Lawrence said, I’m over trying to find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likable! . . . I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard. It’s just heard.9

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“difficult” or “spoiled.” Lawrence encouraged other women in the movie industry to change things for

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A television icon, Lucille Ball won four Emmy Awards during her career.

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CHAPTER FIVE

Women in Television

T

he television was invented in the 1920s, but wasn’t widely available until after World War II (1939–1945). By the early 1950s, television had become a popular entertainment medium. Variety

shows, news programs, and children’s shows kept audiences riveted as popular radio programs made the transition onto the small screen. Wanting to keep up with the latest way to consume entertainment, more and more households purchased televisions. That’s when everyone fell in love

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Trailblazing Leading Ladies There was no greater television star in the 1950s than Lucille Ball. With her slapstick physical humor and impeccable timing, she was the reason I Love Lucy became the most popular show of the decade.1 Many also consider it to be one of the greatest television shows of all time. Ball began her career in

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with Lucy.

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the movies, costarring in more than 75 films in the 1930s and 1940s.2 But her knack for comedy wasn’t noticed until the 1948 radio program My Favorite Husband. Recorded in front of a live studio audience, the program focused on a zany housewife and her long-suffering husband. The audience loved Ball’s exaggerated expressions and gestures, and so did television executives. Ball was a natural fit for the new visual medium of television. My Favorite Husband was reimagined as I Love Lucy, starring Ball and her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz. The couple starred as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. The show premiered on October 15, 1951. It was an immediate hit, and Ball kept audiences laughing from the first episode. So did the schemes concocted by Lucy and her best friend, Ethel, played by Vivian Vance. Similar to many housewives of the 1950s, Lucy dreamed of a career of her own. Reflecting the show’s era, Lucy’s failed plans always made her realize she was happiest being Mrs. Ricky Ricardo, at least

THE FIRST SITCOM Gertrude Berg created the situational comedy, or sitcom, in 1929 with her hit radio show The Rise of the Goldbergs. Later named simply The Goldbergs, the show followed the exploits of a working-class Jewish family in the Bronx, New York. Berg not only created the show but also wrote and starred in it. Unlike other

Ball won an Emmy Award for Best Actress in 1956. I Love Lucy’s last episode aired on May 6, 1957.

created funny and interesting situations for her characters and let the laughter

Ball starred in other television

follow. The show transitioned to television in 1949 and ran until 1953.

shows and films and made cameo appearances. But she was also a television executive. In 1950, Ball

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popular radio programs, The Goldbergs didn’t just rely on jokes for laughs. Berg

until the next episode.

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and Arnaz cofounded Desilu Productions, which produced I Love Lucy. Ball and Arnaz divorced in 1960, and in 1962, she succeeded him as president of Desilu. At the time, she was the only woman to lead a major Hollywood production company. Desilu produced popular shows such as The Untouchables (1959–1963) and The Andy Griffith Show (1960–1968). Ball also greenlit Star Trek (1966–1969), which went on to become a science fiction hit. Ball also paved the way for other television actresses, including Mary Tyler Moore. Moore starred in The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977). They were two of the

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1960s and 1970s. In many ways, the premise of The Mary Tyler Moore Show was unique for its time. It centered on a single woman As a single woman trying to make it on her own, Moore’s character broke the mold.

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most successful television shows of the

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in her thirties trying to make it as a news producer in Minneapolis,

LAVERNE COX Media greatly impacts how people view themselves. This is true for Laverne

Minnesota. The show regularly

Cox, one of the stars of Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. As a transgender

achieved high ratings during its

African-American female, Cox didn’t have anyone she could relate to on

seven seasons on air and won 29

television. After competing in one reality show, then producing and starring in one of her own, Cox was cast as Sophia in Orange Is the New Black. The show helped Cox share her story around the world and use her platform to

Emmy Awards.3

advocate for the transgender community. Perhaps more important, her role on

The Media Mogul

the popular television show helps normalize an experience many people are

Today, Oprah Winfrey is more

otherwise unfamiliar with.

than just a television star: she’s a lifestyle. But Winfrey’s career got

its start in 1976 at WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland. She found her calling as cohost of the local morning talk show. In 1984, Winfrey moved to Chicago, Illinois, to turn around a failing morning program. Within a year, A.M. Chicago was a smash hit. Renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1985, it went into national syndication in 1986. This made Winfrey the first African-American woman to host a nationally syndicated show. In 1986, Winfrey started Harpo Productions, which also produced her talk show. More than 30 million American viewers tuned in to The Oprah Winfrey Show each week by the Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

end of its 24-year run.4 Millions of others watched in more than 100 countries around the world.5 The

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show’s popularity stemmed from Winfrey’s remarkable rapport with her guests and audience. Looking

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Today, Winfrey is one of the most recognizable entertainers in the world.

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directly into the camera, she positioned herself not as an expert but as a curious witness gathering information for viewers. Winfrey was skilled at asking questions that resonated with viewers and open about difficult stories from her past. This approach endeared her to her audience, and after just a few years, Winfrey achieved the same level of fame as many of her celebrity guests. Experts who appeared on her television show were launched into stardom, and books she endorsed topped best-seller lists for weeks. The Oprah Winfrey Show received more than 40 Daytime Emmy Awards, and Winfrey earned a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.6 Winfrey’s influence and status as a cultural icon continues to grow. She started O, The Oprah Magazine in 2000, and the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) on cable television in 2011. As a media mogul, her influence reaches far and wide. Time magazine hailed her as one of the most influential people of the 1900s, and she regularly appears on Forbes’ list of the most powerful and wealthiest people in the world.

Producers and Showrunners There was no such thing as reality television in 1992. So Mary Ellis Bunim and her business partner, Jonathan Murray, entered unknown territory when Music Television (MTV) commissioned them Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

to produce a new program for the music-focused network. Part documentary, part soap opera, it followed seven strangers who lived together to “find out what happens when people stop being

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polite and start being real.”

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Ellen DeGeneres S

tand-up comic Ellen DeGeneres, the star and producer of mid-1990s hit sitcom Ellen, never felt completely at

ease with her public persona. DeGeneres didn’t hide her sexual orientation, but she also didn’t go around talking about it. By 1997, DeGeneres became tired of the secret. She decided it was time for her and her character to come out as a lesbian. A record-breaking 46 million viewers watched “The Puppy Episode,” which DeGeneres cowrote. It earned an Emmy Award for writing, and DeGeneres appeared on the cover of Time magazine. But while everyone was talking about the first openly gay leading character on prime-time network television, people

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stopped watching. Ratings plummeted, and both advertisers and studio executives backed away. Ellen was canceled the next year. DeGeneres’s career went downhill. But in 2003, she became the voice of Dory in the film Finding Nemo. That same year, DeGeneres started hosting her own talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The show proved to be a success and put DeGeneres back on top in Hollywood.

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(1958–) 5/2/16 4:36 PM

The Real World was a

AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN ON TELEVISION The first television show starring an African-American actress was Julia, which aired from 1968 to 1971. Many consider it to be the first “black” sitcom. It starred Diahann Carroll as Julia, a widowed nurse and single mother. The show marked

13-episode experiment that launched an entire television genre. MTV originally approached

the first portrayal of a professional African-American woman on television.

Bunim about creating a scripted

Carroll was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1969. Despite Julia’s success,

show. Bunim was a veteran

African-American actresses continue to struggle for leading roles on television.

producer of soap operas. But Bunim and Murray discovered the

scripted show was too expensive. So they proposed using real people in a similar situation, without scripts, for a total cost of $107,000.7 Bunim’s soap opera experience influenced the dramatic story lines created in the editing room. Murray’s background as a news producer was the foundation for some of the more raw footage. This included the show’s unique video confessionals. During these video confessionals, cast members shared their private thoughts and opinions. The Real World wasn’t a hit with critics, but it spoke to a generation of people working through relationships and cultural conflict. More important, the show became the model for future reality programming, including Bunim and Murray’s Road Rules, Project Runway, and Keeping Up with the Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Kardashians. As for The Real World, its thirtieth season aired in 2015. Writer and executive producer Shonda Rhimes has created a string of hits for ABC. Rhimes’s first series, Grey’s Anatomy, hit the airwaves in 2005. It featured a cast with a variety of ethnicities, body

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types, and sexual orientations. The show had a spin-off, Private Practice, in 2007. In 2012, Rhimes’s

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show Scandal became the first television show since 1974 to center around an African-American woman.8 In 2014, another hit, How to Get Away with Murder, premiered on ABC. The show earned actress Viola Davis a 2015 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama series, the first time an African-American actress had won the award. Rhimes said she writes and produces television shows with her audience in mind. “The goal is that everyone should get to turn on the TV and see someone who looks like them and loves like them,” she has said.9 ABC took note of this multicultural formula and introduced new shows starring Asians,

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Rhimes’s shows have brought a diverse voice to the small screen.

Rhimes, left, has worked to create more diverse roles on television.

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Latinos, and African Americans in 2014.

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Rivers got her big break on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1965.

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CHAPTER SIX

Women in Comedy

C

omedic actors such as Lucille Ball can turn a somewhat humorous script into 30 minutes of nonstop laughter. But then there are comedians. Without the aid of a script, props, or scenery, they

stand onstage and entertain with only words. Comedy is a tough business, and until recently, it’s been predominantly male. Shifting the mindset of what and who is funny takes time, perseverance, and a lot of guts.

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The stereotype of female comics of the 1950s and early 1960s was that they were typically unattractive. Downplaying their looks made them less threatening to audiences, who weren’t sure how to respond to a funny woman. Audiences were even less sure how to respond to Joan Rivers. Dressed modestly in pearls and a little black dress, Rivers looked like an elegant, upper-class girl in search of a husband. Then she opened her mouth.

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The Shocker

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“Even I wouldn’t have her over for dinner!” Rivers once said about her crude and lewd onstage persona.1 Rivers mined her act from her personal life: her mother’s desire for her to find a husband and Joan’s belief that she wasn’t pretty enough. She said the things “nice girls” thought but weren’t supposed to say. The public loved her for it. In 1965, Rivers made her first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, a late-night talk show, capturing the hearts of Johnny Carson and his dedicated viewers. She returned dozens of times over the years between touring engagements. Starting in 1983, Rivers hosted the show whenever Carson was unavailable. In 1986, she became the first woman to host her own late-night talk show. Unfortunately, it only lasted almost seven months. The world wasn’t ready for a sharp-tongued woman calling the shots.

MOMS MABLEY One early female comedian was Loretta Mary Aiken, better known as Moms Mabley. Mabley was born in 1894. The great-granddaughter of a slave, Mabley is best known for a stand-up act that pushed the boundaries of politics,

Similar to Rivers, Carol Burnett’s

race, and general good taste. Frumpy in appearance, Mabley made smart

comedy also stemmed from her

observations about American culture and the racial divide. Her career began

insecurity about her looks. Unlike

in the 1920s on the Chitlin Circuit, a group of venues in the eastern, southern, and upper-midwestern areas of the United States where African Americans

Rivers, Burnett was a physical

were allowed to perform. Caucasian audiences became familiar with Mabley in

comedian. She was an expert at

the 1960s, when she appeared on television variety programs. She continued

slapstick and always willing to take

performing until her death in 1975.

“unladylike” risks.

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The Physical Comedian

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After graduating from college, Burnett looked for work in musical theater. The lead role in 1959’s off-Broadway musical Once Upon a Mattress put her voice to good use, but her comedic acting really stood out. By 1966, she was starring in The Carol Burnett Show,

CAROLINE’S There were no clubs dedicated solely to comedy in New York City during the early 1980s. At most, comedians would serve as opening acts for other

a variety program on CBS. On the

performers. But in 1982, Caroline Hirsch and two friends opened Caroline’s,

hit show, Burnett made faces at

the first upscale comedy club in Manhattan. Hirsch has a knack for discovering

the camera, tripped over furniture, ran into walls, and tumbled down stairs. It ran for 11 years to wide acclaim. It made Burnett the first,

the next big thing. The first act she ever booked was an unknown Jay Leno, who later became the host of The Tonight Show. Since then, Hirsch has helped launch the careers of other comedians who went on to successful careers, including Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C. K., Lisa Lampanelli, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, and Sarah Silverman.

and most successful, female host of a variety program.2 Many of the sketches on The Carol Burnett Show presented Burnett as an unfeminine, unattractive woman who just couldn’t master the tasks expected of her gender. Her hilarious skits were also a

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Ball’s adorable clown, Lucy Ricardo, Burnett’s housewives were angry, manic, and often a little violent. A fulfilling career on screen and onstage followed the show’s end in 1977, but Burnett will always be remembered best for her characters and outstanding physical comedy.

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commentary on the changing roles of women in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In contrast to Lucille

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On her show, Carol Burnett was known for her unique physical comedy.

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Roseanne, starring John Goodman and Roseanne Barr, ran for nine seasons.

The Domestic Goddess Comedy finally started welcoming

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Aren’t Funny.” Writer Christopher Hitchens theorized “male humor prefers the laugh to be at someone’s expense, and understands that life is quite possibly the joke to begin with—and often a joke in extremely poor taste. Whereas

was still a bias against comedians

women, bless their tender hearts, would prefer that life be fair, and even sweet,

who talked about women’s issues.

rather than the sordid mess it actually is.”3 A media firestorm erupted. Critics

That didn’t seem to matter to Roseanne Barr.

railed against Hitchens for his blatant sexism and condescending tone. A year later, Vanity Fair published the cover article “Who Says Women Aren’t Funny?” featuring successful comedians Tiny Fey, Amy Poehler, and Sarah Silverman.

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women in the 1980s. But there

ARE WOMEN FUNNY? Vanity Fair revived an ongoing debate in 2007 with an article titled “Why Women

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Barr is a self-admitted

APARNA NANCHERLA Aparna Nancherla is prepared for the audience’s reaction when she gets onstage.

overnight success. After starting

“It’s okay, you guys. I’m surprised I’m a comedian too,” she says at the beginning

her comedy career in Denver,

of her act. In 2013, Nancherla became the first Indian-American woman to do

Colorado, she moved to Los

4

stand-up on a late-night talk show. Though Nancherla had been performing for a few years, her appearance on Conan introduced her to a broader audience.

Angeles, California, in 1985. Talent

Her routine focuses on the minutia of everyday life—boring office jobs, things

scouts spotted her at a local

she finds on the street—but it’s her deliberate delivery that keeps audiences

comedy club, and she was on The

cracking up.

Tonight Show the next week. Brash and often crass, the “domestic

goddess” ranted about being a housewife in the 1980s. She looked like a normal woman, her kids were a pain, and her husband couldn’t take care of himself. Women all over the country identified with her. Barr’s ultimate goal was to be on television. Three years after first appearing on The Tonight Show, she landed her own sitcom on ABC. Roseanne was about a working-class family living in the Midwest. The show bluntly portrayed the family’s hardships and successes. Audiences loved it, and Roseanne was one of the highest-rated programs on television for seven seasons. The show stayed on the air for nine years until 1997. Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

The Honesty Bomb Like her comedy predecessors, Amy Schumer is a study in contrasts. First-time audiences don’t expect

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the blonde and blue-eyed comedian to entertain them with explicit details of dates gone wrong.

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Inside Amy Schumer won an Emmy for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series in 2015.

Actress Tilda Swinton called Schumer “an honesty bomb.”5 She tells it exactly like it is, even if it makes audiences uncomfortable. Schumer became a household name with her hit Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer. A blend of sketch comedy, stand-up, and on-the-street interviews, it has become a way for Schumer to point out inequalities in the way men and women are treated. By 2015, pop culture websites eagerly covered each episode of the show’s third season, and videos of individual skits went viral. Schumer’s success has also translated to the big screen. She wrote and starred in 2015’s Trainwreck,

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magazine’s most influential people. Just a few months later, she won a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Actress in a Comedy and the Trailblazer of the Year Award from Glamour magazine. More important, her edgy stand-up act and television show have become conversation starters about the double standards women continue to face in the 2000s.

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which made $30.2 million on its opening weekend.6 In April 2015, she was named one of Time

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The Women

of SNL

S

ketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) has been a comedic institution since its debut

in 1975. The show originally included six women: writers Anne Beatts, Marilyn Suzanne Miller, and Rosie Shuster, and actors Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner. The “girls,” as they were called, put out funny, memorable sketches. But some of the male actors refused to be in them. “It was a boys’ club and that was just the way things were,” said Shuster. “You just couldn’t curl up and die because you didn’t have somebody’s approval.”7 For the most part, SNL remained a boys’ club Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

until 1995. That year, Molly Shannon and Cheri Oteri made their debuts. Ana Gasteyer followed in 1996. Backed by strong female writers, the trio breathed

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Original SNL cast members, from left to right, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner showed audiences women could be funny.

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life into a show struggling in the ratings. Tina Fey was hired as a writer in 1997. Two years later, she became the first female head writer in the show’s history. In 2000, she joined Jimmy Fallon at the Weekend Update news desk. In 2004, she and Amy Poehler became the first all-female fake news team. Other popular women have worked on the show, including Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Kristen Wiig, and Leslie Jones. These funny women helped turn the exclusive boys’ club into a show that was,

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Tina Fey was SNL head writer from 1999 to 2006.

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for the first time, all about the girls.

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In 2004, Rolling Stone named The Shirelles number 76 on their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

Women in Music

W

hen rock music burst onto the scene in the early 1950s, women were mostly in the audience. But that was changing by 1958. With top music stars such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee

Lewis, and Chuck Berry on a break from recording, American listeners and record companies were eager for something fresh. Soon a new, innocent sound came on the radio: the doo-wop of the first girl group, the Shirelles.

The First Girl Group Shirley Owens, Micki Harris, Doris Jackson, and Beverly Lee formed the Shirelles in the 1950s to get out of detention. After disrupting class, they were

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chose to perform in the talent show. It wasn’t long until they were touring the United States with Caravan of Stars, a traveling variety show started by popular television personality Dick Clark in 1959. The Shirelles, like many of the acts in the Caravan of Stars, were African American. The South was a hotbed of racial tension at the time, which meant Clark’s mixed-race showcase wasn’t always well received. Regardless,

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given the choice of staying after school or performing in a talent show. They

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the Shirelles were a hit with the crowd. In 1961, they released the album Tonight’s the Night, with immediate radio favorites “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” and “Tonight’s the Night.” The Shirelles’ music crossed genres, racial divides, and even oceans. Legendary British rock band the Beatles loved the Shirelles’ song “Boys” so much they covered it on Please Please Me in 1963. Other groups, including 1990s group En Vogue, have been inspired by the Shirelles’ unified look and harmonious melodies. Singers Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown formed the Supremes in 1961. The Supremes were perhaps more popular, but the Shirelles created the template for that recognizable girl group sound.

The Rock Star The 1960s were a turbulent time

THE “CARTER SCRATCH” Maybelle Carter was a founding member of the Carter Family, a popular musical

in American history and culture.

group that defined the sound of country music in the 1930s. But it was Maybelle’s

As women in general were trying

guitar playing that earns the group a place in music history. She had a special way of playing the guitar in which the melody was played on the bass strings

to find a place for themselves

while the rhythm was played on the treble strings. The “Carter Scratch” turned

in society, female musicians

the guitar from a rhythm instrument to a lead instrument.

were trying to find their place in the American rock band. Girls

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with guitars were stuck in their bedrooms, writing music and playing songs. Most of society considered

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rock music to be for men.

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That changed with Janis Joplin. Joplin’s gravelly voice was full of yearning, and she was often compared to early 1900s blues great Bessie Smith. In 1963, Joplin left her home state of Texas for San Francisco, California, where progressive politics, culture, and music collided. In 1966, she joined the band Big Brother and the Holding Company. In 1968, Joplin’s big, bluesy voice helped make their album Cheap Thrills an instant hit. Sweaty and straining, Joplin poured herself into each song,

CONDUCTING THE CLASSICS In 2005, Marin Alsop became the first woman to be named conductor of a major American orchestra. But her future colleagues at the Baltimore Symphony didn’t take the news well. Ninety percent of the musicians publicly protested her appointment, saying she didn’t have enough experience. Alsop thought it was the end of her career. But she took the job anyway after sharing her vision for the program with the musicians. The Baltimore Symphony was so pleased with her work that her contract was renewed through 2015. She continues to guest conduct at other major orchestras around the world.

including her most famous one, “Piece of My Heart.” Critics called her “the greatest white urban blues and soul singer of her generation.”1 But despite the success of Joplin and other women of the era, women still weren’t widely

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The Pop Star Madonna Louise Ciccone moved to New York City in 1977 when she was 18 years old. She had no money and no friends, but she was determined to be a star. Madonna’s big breakthrough came in

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accepted in the music business.

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Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee” was her only number one hit.

1984 with her second album, Like a Virgin. Her sound was danceable yet sensual, and her image was one of a woman completely in control of herself and her sexuality. This was never more apparent than at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards. Dressed in a white bustier, a frilly white skirt, lace elbow-length gloves, and a wedding veil, she writhed on the ground while singing “Like a Virgin.” Critics deemed the performance an outrageous career-killer.2 The critics were wrong. Madonna went on to have a successful career spanning more than three decades, becoming the best-selling female recording artist of all time. Her early music videos for songs such as “Express Yourself” and “Vogue” helped her cultivate her image as a pop star, fashion icon, and outspoken feminist. Even with a constantly evolving image, Madonna maintains her legacy as a female music superstar. According to alternative rocker Liz Phair, Madonna is the speedboat “pulling the rest of us” who “are just the Go-Gos on water skis.”3

The Rapper As Madonna’s star was rising on the pop charts, a different type of music was being explored off Top 40 radio. Rap was a mainstay of urban areas in the late 1980s, and just as rock music

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companies and the hip-hop community didn’t acknowledge them. Lana Michelle Moorer, more commonly known as MC Lyte, began rapping at the age of 16 in 1986. In 1988, she became the first woman rapper to release a hip-hop album. The first single

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was in the 1960s, it was mostly dominated by men. There were a few female MCs, but record

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on the album, Lyte as Rock, was “I Cram to Understand U (Sam).” The song looked at addiction through the eyes of a lover. Addressing tough topics has been a mainstay of MC Lyte’s work. Her rhymes examine relationships between the sexes and challenge popular opinions about gender equality in hip-hop. Now with more than ten albums to her name, MC Lyte is known for her trailblazing achievements. She was the first female hip-hop artist to have a best-selling single and the first to earn a solo Grammy nomination. She was also the first hip-hop artist—male or female—to perform at New York City’s prestigious Carnegie Hall.4

Compared to the early days of rock, many of today’s most popular musicians are female. Singer Taylor Swift was the highest-earning Madonna has won seven Grammy Awards as of 2015.

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The New Class

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MC Lyte is considered a pioneering female in hip-hop.

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Beyoncé’s first solo album in 2003 earned her five Grammy Awards.

musician in 2015. She brought in more than $80 million dollars, thanks largely to the sales of her album 1989. Earlier that year, Forbes magazine placed her at number 64 on its list of the world’s 100 most powerful women.5 Her influence doesn’t stop with her fans. In an open letter, she convinced Apple Music to change its business model to better compensate musicians and songwriters. Singer Beyoncé Knowles is also changing the way the music industry operates. In addition to being a Grammy Award–winning artist, Knowles is also founder and CEO of Parkwood Entertainment, her own record label and production company. In 2013 she did something unexpected: she released an album without any warning. That meant there was no promotion or leaked singles. Normally that would also mean poor record sales. But the album, Beyoncé, sold 80,000 copies on iTunes in the first three hours of its release.6 Fans bought the whole album before even hearing

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME

any singles. Knowles and

As of 2015, only 65 of the 726 musicians inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have been women.7 Singer Aretha Franklin was the first to be inducted in 1987, the second year of the organization’s existence. Janis Joplin was inducted

Swift are leading a new generation of music artists who insist on complete

eligible 25 years after the release of their first recording.

control of their image, their

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in 1995, followed by the Shirelles in 1996 and Madonna in 2008. Nominees are

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business, and their sound.

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73

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Audrey Flack is a well-known photorealist who paints familiar objects and figures.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

Women in Art

F

or centuries women have been making art to little or no fanfare. Like many other creative industries, the art world is known for its gender bias. Female artists were still on the fringe in 1960s New

York, nearly invisible compared to their male counterparts. Female artists weren’t given as many opportunities to exhibit their work because many prominent art critics and male artists believed women were incapable of doing anything new or cutting edge. But many female artists are helping

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The Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock rose to fame in the late 1940s for his “drip paintings” in which he poured, splattered, and flung paint onto canvases. Abstract artist Helen Frankenthaler took the idea, refined it, and made it her own. By thinning oil paint with turpentine, she was able to create a color wash that soaked into

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change this belief.

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the raw canvas instead of sitting on top of it. Her paintings, mostly

MARY CASSATT

inspired by nature, have a flat,

When painter Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) arrived in Paris in 1866, her gender prevented her from attending art school at École des Beaux-Arts, Paris’s school

unfinished quality. It was in stark

for fine arts. Undeterred, she took special women’s art classes to improve her

contrast to the other abstract

technique. Cassatt befriended impressionist painter Edgar Degas in 1877, and

expressionists of the era. Her first

she was invited to show her work in the fourth Impressionist Exhibition in 1879. She was the only American to ever receive such an invitation. Unlike the other impressionists of the era, Cassatt’s paintings depict life from a woman’s point of view. Her most recognized works explore the relationship between woman and child.

painting made in this manner was 1952’s Mountains and Sea. Fellow artists Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland were intrigued by Frankenthaler’s work. “She was

a bridge between Pollock and what was possible,” Louis said.1 Both men began experimenting with Frankenthaler’s method. The three artists gave rise to the Color Field movement in the late 1950s and 1960s. Color Field is characterized by a flat field of color that appears to spread beyond the edges of the canvas. Hues blend together through the use of loosely defined brushstrokes.

The Photorealist Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Not many pieces of art have the distinction of being called “the ugliest painting of the year,” but that’s exactly what the New York Times said about Audrey Flack’s 1973 painting Jolie Madame.2 The painting

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depicts a woman’s vanity top covered in necklaces, jeweled brooches, and gold rings.

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Frankenthaler, center, received a National Medal of Arts in 2001.

Flack was used to criticism. She began her career as an abstract artist in the 1950s, but by the late 1960s she had transitioned into painting recognizable objects and figures. Instead of working

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directly onto canvas before painting, a process known as photorealism. Flack was the lone female photorealist of her era. While her male counterparts painted traditionally masculine subjects, such as motorcycles and cityscapes, Flack painted things that

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from memory, she took pictures of the scenes she wanted to paint. Photographs are often projected

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surrounded her. Before Flack

DALE MESSICK, CARTOONIST The first successful female cartoonist was Dalia Messick. Messick worked for a

came along, many considered

greeting card company during the day and wrote comic strips at night. But she

photorealism to be a “cool,

couldn’t get anyone to publish her work until she changed her name to the more

anti-emotional art movement.”3

masculine “Dale.” She finally got a chance to show her work to a newspaper publisher, and the cartoon Brenda Starr debuted in 1940. It was about the many

But the objects in Flack’s work

farfetched adventures of a plucky redheaded reporter. Like her creator, she was

were filled with symbolic

tired of being stuck with “girl” assignments—she wanted to go where the action

significance, each evoking

was. At the height of its popularity, Brenda Starr ran in 250 newspapers around the United States.5

emotions and memories for both the artist and the viewer. Because of this, Flack was rarely invited to

exhibit her work alongside her peers. That didn’t change her approach or her subject matter. “What makes for great art is the courage to speak and write and paint what you know and care about,” she said.4

The Photographer Carrie Mae Weems, one of the most influential contemporary African-American artists working today, tackles issues of race, gender, and identity through photography and mixed media. Her Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

first major work, Family Pictures and Stories, was created to disprove the 1965 Moynihan Report,

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which concluded that African-American families didn’t have strong family structures. Her 14-panel

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Weems has addressed race and gender issues through her art.

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Street artist Hayuk uses the sides of buildings as canvases for her art.

The Kitchen Table Series examines family and romantic relationships through the hub of the home, the kitchen table. Weems completed it in 1990. Weems began her career as a documentary photographer but soon began composing her own scenes to photograph. She believes the same message can be delivered through a staged scene just as well as through a candid shot. Weems serves as the subject in most of her work, posing as the main character in The Kitchen Table series and comparing herself to the muses of Picasso and other art greats in her photo Not Manet’s Type. In 2013, Weems received a MacArthur Genius grant to fund continued exploration in her work, which now includes video, fabric, digital images, and sound. That same year, she also received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Street Artist

Critics consider The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago one of the most important

Maya Hayuk’s canvases

pieces of feminist artwork in the United States. Thirty-nine place settings,

are one-story buildings. Hayuk, a street artist,

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life with her enormous,

each commemorating an important woman from history, rest atop three 48-foot- (15 m) long tables that form an equilateral triangle. The tables stand on white tiles inscribed with the names of 999 more influential women. The Dinner Party, which Chicago started in 1974 and finished in 1979, involved hundreds of collaborators. It is on permanent display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York.

largely improvised murals. Reminiscent of kaleidoscope

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brings blank walls to

THE DINNER PARTY

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patterns, her psychedelic paintings explode with color and movement. Beyond the bright colors, Hayuk’s work explores the relationship between light and dark, serving as a larger commentary on the very human struggle of balancing good times with bad. Hayuk’s work is not permanent. Some murals last for years, while others are painted over within a few months. Longevity isn’t Hayuk’s main concern. Instead, she wants her work to be harmonious with the space it is in—a natural extension of, in many cases, urban surroundings. Both critics and the public admire Hayuk’s work. Commercial enterprises have also taken an interest in her work, with some even using it in their own promotional materials without attribution. In 2015, Hayuk sued coffee retailer Starbucks for using artwork similar to hers after she declined to partner with the coffee chain. Luxury bag retailer Coach photographed a campaign in front of one of her murals, and singer Sara Bareilles posed for promotional

THE ARTIST AS ART Marina Abramović, the self-proclaimed “grandmother of performance art,” breaks down the barrier between artist and audience.6 In 1974, Abramović staged Rhythm O, in which she invited viewers to use a variety of objects, some

These scenarios bring up questions

dangerous, on her body. The crowd divided itself into those who wanted to harm

about fair compensation for public

and those who wanted to protect. Abramović stopped the performance after six

artists and the point at which

hours as planned. She was uninjured and walked toward the crowd, which fled to avoid a confrontation. In 2010, Abramović spent 750 hours sitting in silence

“inspired by” turns into “copied

across from visitors at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.7 Many people

from.” But Hayuk’s work is distinct

waited in line for hours just to see the star of the performance art world.

and unique.

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photographs in front of another.

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Mary Blair M

ary Blair was the most influential artist at Walt Disney Studios from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, and she wasn’t even an

animator. Known for playing with color and texture, Blair developed her signature style during a trip to South America to develop concept art for Saludos Amigos (1943) and Three Caballeros (1945). Back home, Blair designed sets and costumes for the live-action/

animation feature Song of the South (1946). She also created the color concepts for three of Disney’s most beloved films: Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953). From the very beginning of each project, she worked alongside writers to develop the look and feel of the story. Her input wasn’t always welcome, however. Many of her male

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coworkers questioned why she was given so much creative power.

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The answer was simple: Walt Disney liked her work. He liked it so much that, despite the fact she left the company in 1953, he asked her to design a special project for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. “It’s a Small World” brought Blair’s aesthetic to life with animatronic figures moving in sync with a catchy tune. Her vision can still be seen today at Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California.

(1911–1978)

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Pauline Frederick was a trailblazing female journalist in radio and television.

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CHAPTER NINE

Women in Journalism

E

ditors and news executives in the 1950s felt women didn’t have the personality, dependability, or dedication needed to report the news. “Women get married and quit just about the time they’re

any good to you,” one editor said. Another claimed female reporters weren’t right for some stories because the stories took place where “I wouldn’t want any lady relative of mine to go at night.”1 It would take time, patience, and a handful of hardworking female reporters to change the status of women in

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The Newscaster Pauline Frederick began her career in print but was eager to break into broadcast news. She became a stringer for ABC News in the late 1930s. She gathered information but never actually told the story on the radio. She finally reported on air in 1939 and was promoted to correspondent

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the newsroom.

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later that year. Almost a decade later, ABC hired her as the first full-time female staff journalist at a broadcast network. Frederick’s regular beat was the United Nations (UN). She first covered the organization on radio and television for both ABC and NBC. At the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, ABC decided to broadcast continuous radio coverage of the UN’s Security Council meetings. Frederick and a senior male reporter shared the story. When he went on vacation, Frederick was promoted to the senior position. She was on air continuously for six weeks. This was the first period of continuous news coverage in American history, and it made Frederick a household name. In 1953, Frederick moved to NBC. She acquired a number of other firsts during her long career. She was the first woman to anchor a network’s radio coverage of a presidential election (1960), the first woman to moderate a presidential debate (1976), and the first woman elected president of the UN Correspondent’s Association (1959).

The Researchers

THE EVOLUTION OF WOMEN’S PAGES Women’s pages first appeared in newspapers in 1890. They focused on topics thought important to women, such as society happenings, food, and fashion.

hiring, promoting, or firing an

looked down on them. But the sections also offered journalism careers to

employee based on race or gender

women who otherwise wouldn’t have had an opportunity to write. Women’s

illegal. The law helped a new wave

pages were phased out in the early 1970s, replaced with style and leisure sections designed to appeal to both genders. In many cases, male editors and

of women get into the newsroom, but they still weren’t given the

writers replaced the women heading these sections.

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These pages contained less information than the rest of the paper, so many

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made

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same opportunities as their male counterparts. Newsweek magazine was a prime example of this problem.

WOMEN WAR REPORTERS Women are no strangers to reporting from the front lines of battle. Maggie Higgins of New York’s Herald Tribune covered the eastern front of World War II.

In 1970, Newsweek’s staff of 36

She sent home eyewitness reports about the United States’s capture of the

researchers included only one

Dachau concentration camp. Higgins remained a war correspondent during

male. Out of 52 writers, only one

the early days of the Vietnam War (1955–1975) until her death in 1966. Also in Vietnam was Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle, a photojournalist who had covered

was female. Female researchers

the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa during World War II. Chapelle felt right at

and reporters were doing the

home digging her own foxhole next to the soldiers she traveled with. In 1965,

legwork, but the male writers were

shrapnel killed Chapelle in Vietnam.

getting the bylines.2 On March 23, 1970, Newsweek’s cover story was “Women in Revolt,” a look at the new wave of women identifying as feminists. That same day, 46 women at Newsweek filed a lawsuit against the magazine for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was the first lawsuit of its kind.3 It took three years for the women and magazine executives to come to an agreement: one-third of all researchers would be men, and one-third of all writers would be women. There would also be at

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This wasn’t just a win for the women of Newsweek. It was a win for all women in journalism. Women at other magazines and newspapers filed suits against their own employers, and the gender wall dividing researchers and writers began crumbling.

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least one female senior editor by the end of 1975.

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The Anchors Just as print journalism was biased toward male writers, broadcast journalism was biased toward male newscasters. A 1974 survey revealed more than half of radio managers thought people disliked the sound of a woman’s voice on air. Women, it was believed, could not authoritatively deliver the news. Some people thought it was risky to even allow them to ask questions during interviews. That was the case for Barbara Walters. During her early years as a reporter on the morning news program Today, anchor Frank McGee forbid her to ask questions about “male” topics, including politics. She

After a long career, Walters is one of the most recognizable faces in television journalism.

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could ask her questions only after McGee

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had asked three of his own. Thanks to a provision in her contract with NBC, Walters was promoted to coanchor when McGee passed away in 1974. Walters remained on Today until 1976, when she became the coanchor of ABC Evening News. That made her the first woman to present the nightly news. At a salary of $1 million per year, it also made her the highest-paid journalist in America.4 A skillful interviewer, Walters has the ability to put her subjects instantly at ease while still asking tough questions. Behind the scenes, she has been subject to constant criticism and jealousy from her male peers. But she’s persevered to become one of the most trusted voices in American news. Walters left her coanchor position in 1978 and moved to the news program 20/20 in 1979, which she cohosted for 20 years. In 1997, she cocreated the talk show The View, which she produced and cohosted. Barbara Walters laid the foundation for the careers of future female journalists such

House in the late 1940s. In the 1950s, she was the first, and only, member of the

Couric rose to fame as the cohost

press corps who questioned President Dwight D. Eisenhower about civil rights. Eisenhower dreaded her questions. From 1958 until Eisenhower left office in 1961, he refused to call on her at all. But President John F. Kennedy hinted at the

2006, Couric became the first

social changes on the horizon when he called on Dunnigan within the first eight

female solo anchor of a nightly

minutes of his first press conference.

newscast. Diane Sawyer followed

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first authorized female African-American reporter for Congress and the White

as Jane Pauley and Katie Couric. of Today from 1991 to 2006. In

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BLACKLISTED Alice Dunnigan, a correspondent for the Associated Negro Press, became the

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Sawyer was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1997.

at ABC, and in 2010, two out of the three nightly network newscasters were women. Couric stepped down from her anchor position in 2011, while Sawyer left her post in 2014. Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

One rising female anchor is Megyn Kelly of Fox News. Kelly often surprises guests who assume they will be on friendly turf at the conservative network on her nightly show The Kelly File. Kelly is known for going after the truth, whether her guests are presidential candidates or Fox’s own analysts.

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As of 2015, The Kelly File was the second-most-watched cable news program on television.

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Christiane Amanpour S

ince she began working at CNN in 1983, Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour

has reported on some of the world’s most harrowing conflicts. In 1994, while the rest of the media followed the trial of O. J. Simpson, a football star who had been accused of murdering his ex-wife, Amanpour was in war-torn Bosnia. She was one of the only Western reporters in the region, and her impassioned reports spurred the US government’s involvement in ending the crisis. Since then, Amanpour has reported from war zones all over the world, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Rwanda, and

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Somalia. She has a keen sense for detecting political unrest.

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The Pentagon tracks her movements in an effort to identify potential hotspots. Recently in her career, Amanpour has become a champion of women and children around the world.

(1958–)

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Arianna Huffington has changed the way people get their news online.

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CHAPTER TEN

Women in Digital Media

T

he digitization of media has changed access to entertainment. In 1951, when television was relatively new, I Love Lucy fans had to be in front of the TV at a certain time on a certain day of the week

to watch the show. Today, shows are available on demand or on recordings. A lot of entertainment is available with a quick Internet search. Digital media has helped fill the immediate demand for entertainment.

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The digital revolution started in the mid-1990s when a handful of newspapers started putting content on the World Wide Web. The first to do so was USA Today. Its website went live in 1995. That was just a few days before the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, which killed 168 people.1 But USA Today readers didn’t have to wait for the evening news or next

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Pioneers of New Media

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morning’s newspaper. They found up-to-the-minute information whenever they wanted on the USA Today website. Lorraine Cichowski led USA Today’s digital experiment. She is now the senior vice president of technology for the Associated Press. In fact, it was primarily women who were pushing for digital content in newsrooms across the country. But 20 years later, there are very few women leading the charge in new media. In 1995, only 14 percent of American adults used the Internet.2 Very few organizations knew how to make online newspapers and magazines profitable, and print publications were still big moneymakers. Internet use grew exponentially over the next few years. By 2001, 50 percent of Americans regularly used the Internet.3 More users meant more opportunities to make money. New media was becoming increasingly important to the livelihood of print publications, and the women who had spearheaded the digital revolution were being pushed out. More than 87 percent of Americans were using the Internet by 2015.4 As with other areas of arts and entertainment, new media is now dominated by men. But there are several women who are putting their own spin on the digital revolution. Copyright © 2016. ABDO Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Political scientist and journalist Arianna Huffington cofounded the Huffington Post in 2005. The site originated as a politically liberal blog that collected news stories from various media outlets. Over

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the years, it has evolved into a more balanced news and opinion site. It covers a wide variety of topics,

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including world news, national news, entertainment, and education. In 2012, it won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Huffington herself has become a media phenomenon. Before the Huffington Post, Huffington wrote several books and even ran for governor of California. She was editor in chief of the Huffington Post until 2011, when she sold the company to AOL for more than $300 million. As of 2015, she is the president and editor in chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, which has 15 editions in countries all over the world.5

Social Media Stars The Internet offers a new outlet for entertainers: social media. Social media allows entertainers— whether it’s a writer, actor, comedian, or musician—to interact with their audience. They can reach fans halfway around the world.

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA STARS MAKE MONEY

One of these entertainers is Bethany Mota, a popular fashion and beauty video blogger. As of 2015, Mota made an estimated

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YouTube videos.6 In 2009, when she was 13, she uploaded her

in a month than some people make in a year. Mota earns money from the YouTube Partner program, which gives video posters 55 percent of the money paid by advertisers on their channel.7 Vine, which Furlan uses, doesn’t have a partner program. Companies such as Wendy’s and Herbal Essences pay Furlan to promote their brands in her videos. Popular Viners can earn up to $20,000 for a brand endorsement.8 That’s a lot of money for just six seconds of exposure. However, many YouTube stars have a lot of followers, but make little money.

first video to help herself forget

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$500,000 per year thanks to her

Social media stars such as Bethany Mota and Brittany Furlan make more money

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about a bully. YouTube became a safe space for her. She continued filming, editing, and uploading videos about shopping and her favorite do-it-yourself projects. As of 2015, Mota’s YouTube channel has more than 9 million subscribers.9 Her online success has led to other opportunities, including a clothing line at Aeropostale. She also finished in fourth place on the television dance competition Dancing with the Stars in 2014. Mota isn’t the only social media star who has found success in traditional media. After some short-lived jobs on prank-based television shows, Brittany Furlan started uploading six-second comedy sketches to Vine launched in January 2013, and Furlan

Mota got her start on YouTube in 2009.

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Vine, a short-form video sharing service.

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adopted the technology just two months later. As of 2015, she had 5.5 million followers.10

The Future of Women in Arts and Entertainment Women have made enormous strides in the fields of arts and entertainment. Around the world, women are breaking through and

EARLY YOUTUBE STAR Michelle Phan has released more than 300 make-up tutorials on YouTube since 2007. Her tips for using makeup to replicate favorite celebrity looks have been viewed more than one billion times. In 2011, Phan cofounded Ipsy, a subscription makeup service, which has one million subscribers in the United States and Canada.13 As of 2015, Ipsy was worth $500 million.14 In 2014, Phan published her first book, Make Up: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success—Online and Off. In 2015, she began shifting her YouTube presence away from makeup tutorials to an overall lifestyle focus.

telling their own stories. But not all areas of arts and entertainment equally represent women. A 2014 report from the Women’s Media Center points out that in 2012, fewer than 29 percent of speaking roles in the Top 100 films went to women. In 2013, women made up only 16 percent of directors, writers, and producers in Hollywood.11 A separate study showed women write fewer than 13 percent of Broadway shows.12

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forms of media are allowing artists and entertainers to reach audiences. It is the perfect opportunity for women to leave their mark on the world of arts and entertainment.

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Nevertheless, stigmas against art and entertainment produced by women are diminishing. New

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Timeline 1940

1961

Dale Messick’s comic strip Brenda Starr debuts in the

The Shirelles release their first album, Tonight’s

Chicago Tribune.

the Night.

1941

1966

Katherine Dunham co-choreographs and stars

The Carol Burnett Show starts its 11-year run.

in Cabin in the Sky, the first all African-American Broadway show.

1970 On March 23, 46 women on the staff of Newsweek sue

1949

the magazine for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Ida Lupino directs Not Wanted, which she also wrote and produced.

1986 The Oprah Winfrey Show goes into syndication around

1951

the country.

I Love Lucy debuts on CBS on October 15.

1988 MC Lyte is the first female hip-hop artist to release

A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry,

an album.

premieres on Broadway.

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1959

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1989

2005

Judith Jamison takes over as artistic director at the

Arianna Huffington cofounds the Huffington Post, a

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

news and blogging website.

1990

2006

Carrie Mae Weems completes her Kitchen Table Series.

Katie Couric becomes the solo evening national news anchor for CBS.

1997 Julie Taymor becomes the first woman to win a Tony

2014

Award for Best Direction of a Musical for The Lion King.

Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay, is released.

She also wins the award for Best Costume Design.

2015

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In June, Misty Copeland becomes the first female

Tina Fey becomes the first female head writer at

African-American principal dancer at the American

Saturday Night Live.

Ballet Theatre.

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1999

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Essential Facts KEY PLAYERS • Pauline Frederickson, journalist • Janis Joplin, musician • Ida Lupino, director/actress • Joan Rivers, comedian • Twyla Tharp, choreographer • Wendy Wasserstein, playwright • Misty Copeland, dancer

WOMEN AS ENTERTAINERS Women have always played a role in arts and entertainment. There are songs about women, paintings of go from being the subject of the story to the storyteller. The civil rights and women’s rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s opened a new world for women in entertainment, particularly behind the scenes. Women were writing scripts, coanchoring the news, and developing their own artistic voices. Society as a whole became more

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women, and stories about women that go back to the earliest of times. It has taken much longer for women to

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accepting of women behind the scenes in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and today women are found in every aspect of the entertainment world.

IMPACT ON SOCIET Y As more women take on leadership and creative positions in arts and entertainment, more stories are told from a female point of view. The feelings, opinions, and experiences of women in art have helped viewers connect with an artist and see themselves represented in society. Through the efforts of women in the arts and entertainment industries, a wider range of stories are being told than ever before, giving everyone the opportunity to find some part of themselves onscreen, onstage, or on the canvas.

QUOTE “What makes for great art is the courage to speak and write and paint what you know and care about.”

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—photorealist Audrey Flack

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Glossary AESTHETIC

FEMINISM

A set of ideas or opinions about beauty or art.

The belief that women should have the same opportunities and rights as men politically, socially, and economically.

AT TRIBUTE To say who made a particular object.

GENRE

BEAT

A specific type of music, film, or writing.

A reporter’s regular area of coverage, such as politics, education, or sports.

LEGACY The lasting influence of a person or thing.

BROADWAY Large theater productions performed in theaters with 500 or more seats.

DOMESTIC

NEW MEDIA A means of mass communication using digital technologies such as the Internet.

ENDOWMENT

OFF-BROADWAY

A large amount of money that has been given to an institution, such as a school or hospital, and is used to pay for its creation and additional support.

Smaller New York City theater productions performed in theaters with between 100 and 499 seats.

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Relating to or involving someone’s home or family; relating to the work, such as cooking and cleaning, that is done in the home.

MC A person who speaks over a beat; interchangeable with “rapper.”

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PRODIGY

SOAP OPERA

A young person who is unusually talented in some way.

A serial drama airing during the daytime.

PRODUCER

A journalist who writes stories for a newspaper without being a member of the regular staff.

STRINGER

A person who supervises or finances a work, such as a play, film, or recording, for exhibition to the public.

SYNDICATE

SCORE

To sell something, like a piece of writing, a television show, or a comic strip, to many different publishers or broadcasters at the same time.

The printed version of a musical composition.

SLAPSTICK

TRANSGENDER

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Identifying with a gender other than the one recognized and assigned at birth.

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Comedy that involves physical action, such as falling down or hitting people.

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Additional Resources SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Fuhrer, Margaret. American Dance. Minneapolis: Voyageur, 2014. Print. Hershey, Geri. We Gotta Get Out of This Place. New York: Atlantic Monthly, 2001. Print. Kohen, Yael. We Killed. New York: Picador, 2012. Print. Weller, Sheila. The News Sorority. New York: Penguin, 2014. Print.

FURTHER READINGS Canemaker, John. The Art and Flair of Mary Blair. Glendale, CA: Disney, 2014. Print. Copeland, Misty. Life in Motion. New York: Touchstone, 2014. Print. Sonneborn, Liz. A to Z of American Women in the Performing Arts. New York: Facts on File, 2002. Print.

WEBSITES To learn more about Women’s Lives in History, visit booklinks.abdopublishing.com. These links are routinely

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monitored and updated to provide the most current information available.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information on this subject, contact or visit the following organizations: The Ailey School 405 W. 55th Street New York, NY 10019 212-405-9000 http://www.theaileyschool.edu The Ailey School is the official school of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The school offers creative movement classes for kids and teens, as well as continuing education classes for professional dancers.

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The National Museum of Women in the Arts 1250 New York Avenue NW Washington, DC 2005 202-783-5000 http://www.nmwa.org The National Museum of Women in the Arts is the only museum in the world dedicated to exhibiting artwork by female artists of all ethnicities from the Renaissance through today.

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The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum & Center for Comedy 2 W. 3rd Street Jamestown, NY 14701 716-484-0800 http://www.lucy-desi.com The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum & Center for Comedy is more than just a tribute to America’s funniest couple. The center also hosts an annual comedy festival and hosts educational events about comedy as an art form.

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Source Notes 1. Charlotte Alter. “Misty Copeland Becomes First Black Principal Ballerina at American Ballet Theatre.” Time. Time, 30 Jun. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 2. “Misty Copeland Biography.” Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 3. Anne Mavity. “Misty Copeland: Life in Motion Interview.” YouTube. YouTube, 23 Mar. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 4. Jeff Truesdell. “Misty Copeland Is First Black Female Principal Dancer for American Ballet Theater.” People. People, 30 June 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 5. Maureen Callahan. “Dancer Misty Copeland Has Broken Barriers to Bring Ballet Center Stage.” NY Post. NY Post, 2 June 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 6. Jack Anderson. “Maria Tallchief, a Dazzling Ballerina and Muse for Balanchine, Dies at 88.” New York Times. New York Times, 12 Apr. 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 7. Emil Guillermo. “Stella Abrera Battles Back From Pain to Ballet’s Ultra-Elite.” NBC News. NBC News, 17 Aug. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 8. “Evelyn Cisneros: 1959–: Ballerina - Debuted With The San Francisco Ballet.” Free Encyclopedia. Free Encyclopedia, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

CHAPTER 2. WOMEN IN DANCE 1. “Martha Graham: Revolt and Passion.” PBS. PBS, 16 Sept. 2005. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 2. Alex Witchel. “To Dance Beneath the Diamond Skies.” New York Times. New York Times, 22 Oct. 2006. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 3. Liz Sonneborn. A to Z of American Women in the Performing Arts. New York: Facts on File, 2002. Print. 117. 4. Jennifer Dunning. “Judith Jamison to Retire in 2011.” New York Times. New York Times, 29 Feb. 2008. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

CHAPTER 3. WOMEN IN THEATER 1. “Women in Theater.” Women in Theater. University of Virginia, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 2. Elizabeth Brown-Guillory. Their Place on the Stage. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1988. Print. 34–35. 3. Laurie Winer. “Wendy Wasserstein, The Art of Theater No. 13.” The Paris Review. Spring 1997, No. 142. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 4. Sarah Begley. “Julie Taymor on The Lion King and Her Creative Process.” Time. Time, 8 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 5. “Julie Taymor.” Broadway: The American Musical. Educational Broadcasting Corporation, 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

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CHAPTER 1. THE BRIGHTEST STAR IN MODERN BALLET

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6. Tim Kenneally. “Women on Broadway: New Study Reveals Grim Statistics.” The Wrap. The Wrap, 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 7. “Stella Adler: Awake And Dream!” PBS. PBS, 24 Nov. 2000. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 8. Carey Purcell. “Fun Home Duo Make History as First All-Female Writing Team to Win the Tony.” Playbill. Playbill, 7 June 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

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1. Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster. A Short History of Film. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2008. Print. 194. 2. Charlene Regester. African American Actresses. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2010. Print. 285. 3. Helen O’Hara. “34 Women Who Changed Cinema.” Telegraph. Telegraph, 13 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 4. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).” Box Office Mojo. Box Office Mojo, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 5. “Passing the Baton: Meet Kathleen Kennedy | StarWars.com.” StarWars.com. Lucasfilm, 30 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 6. “Box Office Mojo - People Index.” Box Office Mojo. Box Office Mojo, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 7. Natalie Robehmed. “The World’s Highest-Paid Actresses 2015: Jennifer Lawrence Leads with $52 Million.” Forbes. Forbes, 20 Aug. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

CHAPTER 5. WOMEN IN TELEVISION 1. Gary R. Edgerton. The Columbia History of American Television. New York: Columbia UP, 2007. Print. 131. 2. Ibid. 3. “Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 4. Jennifer Harris and Elwood Watson. The Oprah Phenomenon. Lexington, KY: The UP of Kentucky, 2009. Print. 7. 5. “Oprah Winfrey Biography.” Academy of Achievement. Academy of Achievement, 31 Aug. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 6. “Oprah Winfrey.” She Made It. The Paley Center for Media, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 7. Richard M. Huff. Reality Television. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006. Print. 13. 8. Lacey Rose. “Shonda Rhimes Opens Up About ‘Angry Black Woman’ Flap, Messy ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Chapter and the ‘Scandal’ Impact.’” Hollywood Reporter. Hollywood Reporter, 8 Oct. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

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CHAPTER 4. WOMEN IN FILM

8. Leah Chernikoff. “Why Ava DuVernay Hates the Word Diversity.” Elle. Elle, Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 9. Jennifer Lawrence. “Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co-Stars?” Lenny. Lenny, 13 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

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Source Notes Continued 9. Kai Elz. “Shonda Rhimes Says She’s Normalizing TV.” Chicago Defender. Chicago Defender, 18 Mar. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 1. Susan Horowitz. “Queens of Comedy.” Amsterdam: Overseas Publishers Association, 1997. Print. 88. 2. Ibid. 82, 84. 3. Christopher Hitchens. “Why Women Aren’t Funny.” Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair, Jan. 2007. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 4. Anna Sterling. “Off Color: An Unlikely Comedian Embraces Her Outsider Role.” NBC News. NBC, 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 5. Tilda Swinton. “Amy Schumer.” Time. Time, 16 Apr. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 6. Tim Lewis. “Meet Comedian Amy Schumer, the Sneaky Feminist Honesty Bomb.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2 Aug. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 7. Yael Kohen. We Killed. New York: Picador, 2012. Print. 103.

CHAPTER 7. WOMEN IN MUSIC 1. “Janis Joplin Biography.” Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

CHAPTER 8. WOMEN IN ART 1. Karl Belz. “Helen Frankenthaler.” Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women’s Archive, 1 Mar. 2009. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 2. Achim Drucks. “Audrey Flack: Breaking the Rules.” ArtMag. Deutsch Bank, 2012. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 3. Ibid. 4. “Quotes by Audrey Flack.” A-Z Quotes. A-Z Quotes, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

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CHAPTER 6. WOMEN IN COMEDY

2. Christina Garibaldi. “Here’s the Wardrobe Malfunction That Made Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ VMA Performance Legendary.” MTV News. MTV, 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 3. Mina Carson, Tisa Lewis, and Susan M. Shaw. Girls Rock! Fifty Years of Women Making Music. Lexington, KY: The UP of Kentucky, 2004. Print. 150. 4. Dionne Bennett. “Let the Lyte Shine: How MC Lyte Illuminates Hiphop Culture.” Hip Hop Archive. Hip Hop Archive, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 5. “Taylor Swift.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 6. Silvio Petroluongo. “Beyonce’s Surprise Album Trending Towards No. 1 on Billboard 200.” Billboard. Billboard, 13 Dec. 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 7. David C. Barnett. “As Joan Jett Is Inducted, Women Still Scarce at Rock Hall.” NPR Music. NPR, 17 Apr. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

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5. Richard Severo. “Dale Messick, 98, Creator of ‘Brenda Starr’ Strip, Dies.” New York Times. New York Times, 8 Apr. 2005. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 6. Elizabeth Greenwood. “Wait, Why Did That Woman Sit in the MoMA for 750 Hours?” Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 2 Jul. 2012. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 7. Ibid.

CHAPTER 9. WOMEN IN JOURNALISM 1. Marion Marzolf. Up From the Footnote. New York: Hastings, 1977. Print. 75–76. 2. Ibid. 96. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid. 187.

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1. Meg Heckman. “Women Were Digital Media Pioneers, but There’s Still a Gender Gap There.” Columbia Journalism Review. Columbia Journalism Review, 24 Mar. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid. 5. “Arianna Huffington.” The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

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CHAPTER 10. WOMEN IN DIGITAL MEDIA

6. “The 30 Most Influential People on the Internet.” Time. Time, 5 Mar. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 7. Erik Sherman. “How Web Stars Make Money—Lots of It.” CBS News. CBS, 10 June 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 8. Tad Friend. “Hollywood and Vine.” New Yorker. New Yorker, 15 Dec. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 9. “Bethany Mota.” YouTube. YouTube, 2016. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 10. Greg Gilman. “How Vine’s Biggest Female Star Brittany Furlan Is Building a Career—One 6-Second Video at a Time.” Wrap. Wrap, 27 Mar. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 11. “The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014.” Women’s Media Center. Women’s Media Center, 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 12. Patricia Cohen. “Rethinking Gender Bias in Theater.” New York Times. New York Times, 23 June 2009. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 13. “Michelle Phan.” Michelle Phan. Michaelle Phan, 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. 14. Cheryl Wischhover. “Michelle Phan Shifts Her Focus Away From Beauty Tutorials.” Fashionista. Breaking Media, 20 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

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Index Abrera, Stella, 11 African Ceremonial, 15 American Ballet Theatre, 6, 7, 10, 11 Bechdel, Alison, 30–32, 39 Bradley, Cynthia, 6–7 Cabin in the Sky, 14 Carol Burnett Show, The, 57 Cisneros, Evelyn, 11 Civil Rights Act of 1964, 86–87 Copeland, Misty, 5–11

Kitchen Table Series, The, 78–81 Kung Fu, 21

Tallchief, Maria, 8 Tonight’s the Night, 66 USA Today, 93–94

Like a Virgin, 69 Lion King, The, 29–30 Lyte as Rock, 70 Mary Tyler Moore Show, The, 47–48 Mountains and Sea, 76 Movin’ Out, 18 Newsweek, 87

Family Pictures and Stories, 78 Firebird, The, 7–8, 10 Fun Home, 30–32

Oprah Winfrey Show, The, 48–50

Goldbergs, The, 46

Raisin in the Sun, A, 26–27 Real World, The, 50–52 Rhythm O, 82 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 72

Heidi Chronicles, The, 28 Huffington Post, 94–95

Sisters Rosensweig, The, 28

Parkwood Entertainment, 72

Wilkinson, Raven, 10, 11 Women in Art, 75–83 Abramović, Marina, 82 Blair, Mary, 83 Chicago, Judy, 81 Flack, Audrey, 76–78 Frankenthaler, Helen, 75–76 Hayuk, Maya, 81–82 Messick, Dale, 78 Weems, Carrie Mae, 78–81 Women in Comedy, Barr, Roseanne, 59–60 Burnett, Carol, 56–57 Fey, Tina, 63 Hirsch, Caroline, 57 Nancherla, Aparna, 60 Rivers, Joan, 55–56

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Deuce Coupe, 17 Dinner Party, The, 81

I Love Lucy, 45–47, 93 Inside Amy Schumer, 61

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DuVernay, Ava, 43 Kennedy, Kathleen, 40–41 Lansing, Sherry, 38–39 Lawrence, Jennifer, 42–43 Lupino, Ida, 35–36 Pickford, Mary, 36 Wenger, Rose, 38 Women in Journalism, 85–91 Amanpour, Christiane, 91 Couric, Katie, 89, 90 Dunnigan, Alice, 89 Frederick, Pauline, 85–86 Kelly, Megyn, 90 Pauley, Jane, 89 Sawyer, Diane, 89–90 Walters, Barbara, 88–89 war reporters, 87 Women’s Pages, 86 Women in Music, 65–72 Alsop, Marin, 67 Carter, Maybelle, 66 Joplin, Janis, 66–67 Knowles, Beyoncé, 72 Madonna, 67–69 MC Lyte, 69–70

Shirelles, The, 65–66 Swift, Taylor, 72 “Women in Revolt,” 87 Women in Television, 45–53 Ball, Lucille, 45–47, 57 Berg, Gertrude, 46 Bunim, Mary Ellis, 50–52 Carroll, Diahann, 52 Cox, Laverne, 48 Davis, Viola, 52–53 DeGeneres, Ellen, 51 Moore, Mary Tyler, 47 Rhimes, Shonda, 52–53 Winfrey, Oprah, 48–50 Women in Theater, 25–33 Adler, Stella, 30 Hansberry, Lorraine, 26–27 Kron, Lisa, 30–32 McDonald, Audra, 33 Rosenthal, Jean, 29 Taymor, Julie, 28–30 Tesori, Jeanine, 30–32 Wasserstein, Wendy, 27–28

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Saturday Night Live, the women of, 62–63 Schumer, Amy, 60–61 Women in Dance, 13–22 American dance, 15 de Mille, Agnes, 22 Duncan, Isadora, 13 Dunham, Katherine, 13–15 Graham, Martha, 13, 14 Jamison, Judith, 18–20 Primus, Pearl, 15–16 Stroman, Susan, 22 Tayeh, Sonya, 20–21 Tharp, Twyla, 17–18 Urban Bush Women, 17 Ziegler, Maddie, 20 Women in Digital Media, 93–97 Furlan, Brittany, 96–97 Huffington, Arianna, 94–95 Mota, Bethany, 95–96 Phan, Michelle, 97 Women in Film, 35–43 Bechdel Test, the, 39 Bigelow, Kathryn, 42 Dandridge, Dorothy, 36–38

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About the Author Kristin Marciniak researches, writes, and edits from her home in Kansas City, Missouri. Even though she has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, she can’t believe she gets to write for a living.

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This is her fifteenth book.

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