The Role of Women in Television Production History
Women have a rich history of trailblazing accomplishments when it comes to television, including producing, writing and directing, but many are unaware of the uphill struggle women faced in their fight to contribute their creativity, wit and voice to the television industry.
Women Wrote the Shows America Loved
Considering there was a time when women in television production and female writers were often laughed out of executive offices, it's amazing Gertrude Berg got as far as she did.
Berg carved out a place in television history in 1949 when her long-running radio show, which charted the life of a Jewish immigrant family trying to find its way through American society, was brought to CBS as The Goldbergs. It deeply resonated with Americans at the time, especially those who found themselves in similar circumstances.
Women Producers as Pioneers
Judy Crichton got her start in television production as a teenager in 1944 during a time when producers were almost all men. She was a female television producer of game shows through the 1960s. Later in life, she became one of the first female news producers in television history on shows like CBS Reports and ABC Close-Up. She won three Emmys for her work on "The Nuclear Battlefield," an installment of CBS' The Defense of the United States. Crichton is best known for producing more than 100 documentaries for PBS' American Experience.
In Front of the Camera and Behind the Scenes
Barbara Walters started her career as a female television writer and producer on NBC's Today show in 1961. Walters wrote in her biography that at the time, nobody took a woman doing "hard news" seriously. Over her career, she edited, wrote and produced a variety of hard-news stories, which helped elevate her in the eyes of news-industry veterans. Although women are now involved in all levels of news production, Walters was one of the first women to punch through the glass ceiling.
Oprah Fever
Where would the world be without Oprah Winfrey? From the very beginning she broke barriers, serving as both the first black female anchor and the youngest news anchor at WLAC-TV in Nashville. Of course, The Oprah Winfrey Show made her famous, but she quickly demonstrated her savvy and creativity by producing shows like The Women of Brewster Place and founding the women's TV networks Oxygen and OWN. Winfrey came from abject poverty in rural Mississippi but proved women with talent could make television history.
Source List
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/berg-gertrude
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/arts/television/17crichton.html
