Did television empower women? The introduction of television and the changing status of women in the 1950s

This article examines the possibility that the introduction of television may have played a role in women’s empowerment. Focusing primarily on the historical context of the post-war United States, this article takes as its starting point the temporal coincidence of the very rapid uptake of television in the late 1940s and 1950s, followed in the 1960s by the women’s liberation movement and the increasing social status for women. It draws from a wide range of literature, focusing on three broad areas: the technological features of television, in particular its equalizing mode of address; the domestic and social context to which it was introduced; and the subversive and counter-hegemonic content that was available on early television.