26 Films | 5 evenings beginning March 11th
TCM hosts Alicia Malone and Jacqueline Stewart will be presenting a variety of films spanning six decades showcasing women at work.
As the 20th century saw the rise of women in the work force, the characters in these films shed light on the uphill battle women have faced to be taken seriously in the workplace. Whether driven by ambition or survival, working women were subject to sexual harassment, abuse of power, societal expectations of gender roles and their fictional representatives were at the whim of a studio approved story ending. As the years progressed, working women stopped being a novelty and soon became the centerpiece of many women driven films.
The 1930s
Pre-Code films disrupted the notion of a “woman’s place” with their depictions of working women. Most notably, Barbara Stanwyck’s standout role as Lily in Baby Face (1933) gave audiences a revenge fantasy in which a woman, abused by men her whole life, turns the tables in her favor by using her feminine wiles to in turn seduce powerful businessmen. She moves up the corporate ladder—as the camera pans up a New York City building as she advances from floor to floor—using men to lift herself out of poverty and into a life of luxury. In Female (1933), Ruth Chatterton’s character Alison Drake—a hard-nosed executive who runs the car company she inherited from her father—is already at the top. The men work for her and much like a man would in her position, she abuses her power to take advantage of the young hires whom she invites to her decadent Art Deco mansion. She is successful in her seductions until she meets her match in Jim Thorne (George Brent) who refuses to fall in her trap without a serious relationship. While the women in these films are forced to learn the error of the ways, there is just enough of a role reversal to titillate viewers.
This type of gender swap is also explored in Man Wanted (1932) in which Kay Francis plays Lois Ames, the chief editor at a magazine who hires a male secretary, Tom played by David Manners. He’s never worked for a woman. She’s never had a man directly report to her. Once this disruption is established, the story quickly evolves into a romantic drama in which the pair must reconcile their feelings with each other while also being committed to other people. In Big Business Girl (1931), the shift from workplace comedy to romantic drama is even more sudden. Loretta Young plays Claire, a young woman who must go to work in the city to pay off mounting debts. She quickly becomes the target of her boss Robert Clayton (Ricardo Cortez), a workaholic who runs a tight ship but curiously enough spends too much of his time trying to seduce his new secretary.
The depiction of the working woman as survivor is evident in films like Imitation of Life (1934). Claudette Colbert plays Bea Pullman, a widow who has inherited her deceased husband’s maple syrup business. Along with her maid Delilah’s (Louise Beavers) signature pancake recipe, she creates her own business—first flipping pancakes in a small shop then turning the pancakes into an empire with Delilah’s pancake mix being sold nationwide. While men are sometimes involved with her career trajectory, Bea becomes a success with the help of another woman. Later in the decade, we get the holiday gem Bachelor Mother (1939) starring Ginger Rogers as Polly, a department store shop girl who is mistaken as the mother of an abandoned child. At Christmas time she’s given the era’s equivalent of a pink slip saying that she’s not needed now that the holiday season is wrapping up. But her future love interest David Niven negotiates her keeping her job in exchange for keeping “her” baby. Much like the baby, Polly is an orphan. She has no family and a steady job as a shopgirl is about survival in a time when jobs are scarce.
The 1940s
In the following decade, we see more working woman characters deal with the internal struggle of choosing between family and career. In Howard Hawks’ madcap comedy His Girl Friday (1940)—a remake of The Front Page (1931) in which the character Hildy is a woman instead of a man—Rosalind Russell shines as the fast-talking news reporter. Hildy spends the entire movie trying to quit her job to settle down with her demure insurance salesman fiancé Bruce (Ralph Bellamy) while also agreeing to take on one last assignment with her ex-husband, intrepid reporter Walter Burns (Cary Grant). Hildy holds her own in a frenetic and male-dominated work environment and while she likes the idea of transitioning to a more conventional role of being a stay-at-home wife, she still clings to being the neglected partner of a man who is married to his job. We see the opposite in the film noir Mildred Pierce (1945), where Joan Crawford plays the title character—a stay-at-home mother who must find work to support her family after she leaves her philandering husband and experiences a great tragedy. Mildred is a self-sacrificing mother who will do anything to make her ungrateful daughter Veda (Ann Blyth) happy. Much of the film is spent exploring her career trajectory from full-time waitress and part-time baker to becoming a successful owner of a popular restaurant chain. For both Mildred and Hildy, career comes in direct conflict with a happy home life.
During the throes of WWII, films about the homefront depicted women working for the cause and any notions of whether women should or should not be working were set aside in a time of war. In the British propaganda film Millions Like Us (1943), a trio of sisters want to support the war effort but one has to stay behind to care for their widower father. Star Patricia Roc plays Cecilia, the middle daughter who at first wants to join the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force but has to go where she is needed and takes on a factory job. The film is very direct with its message of self-sacrifice and discipline.
Early feminist icon Katharine Hepburn seemed born to play career-minded and independent women. In Woman of the Year (1942)—the first of nine films she starred in with Spencer Tracy—Katharine Hepburn plays Tess Harding, the wildly successful political reporter for the fictional New York Chronicle. Tracy is Sam Craig, a fellow reporter at the same newspaper covering sports who is much more easygoing than the ambitious Tess. The two are polar opposites but when their work brings them together sparks fly and they marry. Tess’s devotion to her career means that she has little knowledge of what it means to take care of a home and family. Much of the conflict in their relationship is caused by work and while many contemporary viewers are frustrated by how Tess’ story pans out, it is reflected of deeply entrenched gender norms that people were still not ready to let go.
Hepburn and Tracy joined forces again in the comedy Adam’s Rib (1949) in which they play Amanda and Adam Bonner, married lawyers who find themselves on opposing sides of an attempted murder case. This battle of the sexes comedy was inspired by a true life case of married lawyers representing actors Raymond Massey and Adrienne Allen in their divorce. Hepburn and Tracy play the conflict in the courtroom and the bedroom to great comedic effect. Much is made about Hepburn’s Amanda championing equal rights for women and double standards when it comes to enforcing the law.
The 1950s
Hepburn and Tracy find themselves once again at odds in the workplace in the romantic comedy Desk Set (1957). Hepburn plays Bunny Watson, the head research librarian at a major television network. Tracy is Richard Sumner, the computer expert whose computer EMMY threatens the job of Bunny and her fellow librarians. It’s already been such an uphill climb to even get into the workforce but to be served the pink slip once a man shows up with their perceived replacement gives these career women another obstacle to face. Desk Set was ahead of its time demonstrating the real fear of artificial intelligence replacing humans in the workforce.
In the 1950s, we see more movies about self-made career woman. In the soapy drama Lucy Gallant (1955), Jane Wyman plays the title character, a fashionable young woman who causes a stir when she moves to a small prospect town. She sees an opportunity to develop her own business when the local women take a particular interest in her clothing. The story follows her evolution from running a small town dress shop to running a fashion empire. The romantic conflict comes in the form of Casey Cole (Charlton Heston) a handsome young prospector who wants all of her, not just whatever small amount of time she can sacrifice from her career.
A film like Bright Road (1953) is an outlier in its depiction of a black working woman. According to film historian Donald Bogle, “Bright Road was an anomaly for the period, being neither a musical nor a treatment of racial issues. Instead it was a simple story of a rural teacher in an unnamed southern school trying to reach a problem child. Yet its quiet daring has earned it a faithful fan following.” Dorothy Dandridge delivers a beautiful performance as the sensitive teacher who takes a particular interest in a troubled student.
Another film about a career woman emotionally invested in her career is The Best of Everything (1959). Based on the best-selling novel by Rona Jaffe and set in a New York City book publishing house, the film stars Hope Lange as Caroline—a young woman who applies to be a secretary but has dreams of quickly climbing the ranks to book editor. In her way is Joan Crawford in a small but powerful role as the tough-as-nails editor Amanda Farrow. This soap mostly focuses on the romantic relationship of the various characters including those played by Diane Baker and Martha Hyer as well as the sexual harassment at the hands of Brian Aherne’s boss character Fred Shalimar. But it hints at what’s to come with movies like The Devil Wears Prada (2006). It also served as inspiration for the period era work relationships between men and women in the show Mad Men.
In the whacky comedy The Fuller Brush Girl (1950) we start to get a hint of the shifting tides in the economy from one-income to two-income households. Lucille Ball—on the verge of her mega-success and industry changing television show I Love Lucy—plays Sally, a switchboard operator at a steamship company who gets fired and must find a new job. Her test run as a door-to-door saleswoman pushing Fuller Brush products proves to be catastrophic. Unlike previous movies about career women in office romances, her relationship with Eddie Albert’s Humphrey Briggs is already established. To marry, they must both have jobs to save up for a house. Without a romantic plot to carry the story, it shifts to a murder-mystery.
The 1960s
With the growing popularity in sex comedies and soaps, movies featuring career women lean into the theme of mixing business with pleasure and the workplace being a breeding ground for romance.
A follow up to the box office hit Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961) reunites Doris Day and Rock Hudson—and Tony Randall too—in another mistaken identity sex comedy. Day and Hudson play Carol and Jerry, rival ad executives who compete for the same clients in the high-stakes world of Madison Avenue. Carol is punctual, driven and ambitious. Jerry has gotten a bit too comfortable relying on the availability of liquor and attractive women to gain prospective clients. Like in Pillow Talk, Jerry pretends to be someone else to enact revenge on Carol but ends up falling for her instead. In The Wheeler Dealers (1963), we move to Wall Street, another male-dominated hub in New York City. Lee Remick plays Molly Thatcher, the sole female stockbroker at the firm run by the unapologetic misogynist Bullard Bear (Jim Backus). The plan is to eventually fire her by giving her an impossible task to complete. Wheeling and dealing investor Henry Tyroon (James Garner) takes a romantic interest in Molly and helps her with this new assignment. Molly makes the case for women on Wall Street and her career in general professing her love for her job and her hope for more women in the business.
Come Fly with Me (1963) captures the glamor of transatlantic travel with the romantic exploits of a trio of flight attendants. The film stars Dolores Hart, Pamela Tiffin and Lois Nettleton as three young flight attendants working for a Pan Am-like airline in what the film’s trailer calls an “around-the-world man hunt.” This comedy tapped into the interest in Europe as a travel destination and serves as a time capsule of the golden age of airline travel. In a time when eccentric comedies reigned supreme, Sex and the Single Girl (1964) fits the mold with a very loose adaptation on the life of writer and editor Helen Gurley Brown. In fact, the story had already been written and according to TCM writer Roger Fristoe, Warner Bros paid Brown $200,000 for the use of her name but with no intention of adapting her best-selling book about sexual relationships and marriage. Natalie Wood stars as the sex psychologist who is being investigated by Bob Weston (Tony Curtis), a writer for a trashy magazine who is trying to expose her as a fraud but falls for her instead.
The potential for women in the workplace had reached its peak with Kisses for My President (1964) which sees Polly Bergen’s character Leslie McCloud attaining the most important job in the nation—that of the president of the United States. Throwing a wrench in the works is the First Gentleman, Thad McCloud played by Fred MacMurray, who is increasingly uncomfortable with his wife’s new career and his changing role in the relationship. The movie pokes fun at gender roles while also trying to capture a little of the allure that JFK and Jackie Kennedy brought to the White House.
The 1970s & 1980s
As the US economy shifted and the women’s rights movement gained momentum, women made up a significant percentage of the workforce. The popular drama/comedy Baby Boom (1987) starts off by informing the viewer of some statistics. “53% of the American workforce is female, 3 generations of women that turned 1,000 years of tradition on its ear… Sociologists say the new working woman is a phenomenon of our time.” In Baby Boom, Diane Keaton plays J.C. Wiatt, a management consultant who enjoys a position of power, a sizable salary and a noncommittal relationship with her workaholic boyfriend Steven (Harold Ramis). On the verge of gaining partnership at her firm, she inherits baby Elizabeth, the orphaned child of a relative, and her future in business is thrown for a loop. Baby Boom pays homage to beloved classics like Bachelor Mother and Woman of the Year using similar conceits but set in the world of 1980s corporate America. It also offers a perspective that both career and family are possible when a healthy balance is reached.
Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, we see more career-making and award-winning roles for actresses playing working women who faced different challenges. Ellen Burstyn won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974). When her husband dies in a trucking accident, Alice must enter the workforce for the first time to support herself and her pre-teen son. When she faces sexual harassment as a lounge singer, she leaves town and finds a job as a waitress at a diner which opens an opportunity for romance as well as stability and independence.
In Faye Dunaway’s Academy Award winning performance in Network (1976), she plays Diana, an ambitious and invulnerable programming chief at a major television network. Channeling her emotion into her work and little into her personal life, she sees an opportunity to tap into newscaster Howard Beale’s (Peter Finch) controversial broadcast that has tapped into the public’s collective rage. Sidney Lumet directed Dunaway to portray Diana as an unsympathetic character—one like any man in a similar position. In The China Syndrome (1979), Jane Fonda also plays an ambitious career woman working for a television station. Fonda plays Kimberly Wells news reporter who is craving a juicy assignment, something more substantial than the puff pieces she’s been given. She scores her first lead story when she and cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas) investigate a coverup at a nuclear power plant, one that conceals the potential danger the public faces if there is an imminent nuclear disaster. The film was prescient having been released shortly before the Three Mile Island nuclear accident.
Jane Fonda was inspired by the Boston-based 9to5, National Association of Working Women for her next big hit 9 to 5 (1980). Fonda stars with Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton as office secretaries who enact revenge on their cruel boss Franklin Hart, Jr., played by Dabney Coleman. 9 to 5 is part workplace comedy, part revenge drama that proved to be cathartic for the working women who also had to endure sexual harassment and faced obstacles moving up the corporate ladder. Dolly Parton’s Academy Award nominated theme song 9 to 5, which she both wrote and performed, was a huge hit and soon became the anthem for working women everywhere.
