Women in Power

In more recent years the number of powerful women in television has increased. One of these powerful women is Leslie Knope from NBC's Parks and Recreation. The show follows Knope as she starts out as the deputy director of the parks and recreation department for the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. Throughout the show, she moves up through her local government and eventually begins a job in state government. The show first aired on NBC in 2009 and just ended this past February. The show was produced by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur according to NBC's website and this article on it. The two were also both producers for The Office at one point.

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Since the show first aired, Knope has become a sort of feminist icon. The character believes in equality, empowerment of women, and shows that women can hold a place in government, too. There are many instances throughout the show where she is promoting feminist ideology without ever really using the term itself. The writers of Parks and Recreation show Knope as a strong, independent, and smart women. She knows what she is capable of and will not let anyone stand in the way of her goals.

One of the many times where Knope shows what feminism means is when she creates the Pawnee Goddesses, a scout troop meant for girls because the boy's troop, the Pawnee Rangers, would not let the girls join. The Pawnee Rangers are lead by Ron Swanson, Leslie's boss, so she and Ron take both their troops on an outing. The boys of the Pawnee Rangers see how much fun the Goddesses are having and want to join. In this clip, Leslie sends a boy away and the young girls think that the boy should be allowed because Leslie taught them about equality. Leslie lets the Pawnee Rangers join the Pawnee Goddesses all in the name of equality. Isis Madrid talks about this specific event and many others in her article called "12 Times Leslie Knope Totally Nailed Being a Feminist."

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In another episode, Leslie meets with the first female city councilwoman. Leslie is inspired by her and starts a Gender Equality Commission to have more women in each department of her local government. The department with the largest inequality between workers is the sanitation department. In this clip, the heads of the sanitation department claim that not many women apply and that this type of manual work is too strenuous for women. To prove to the department that they should hire more women, Leslie and April, a former intern at the parks department, work on a garbage truck for a day to prove that women can do anything men can do.

In another episode title "Galentine's Day", Leslie gets all the women in her life together to celebrate being a women and all her friends the day before Valentine's Day. Here is a clip that describes what it is by Leslie. This shows another important aspect of feminism, which is supporting the women around you and celebrating their accomplishments.

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In an episode from the final season, Leslie's husband, Ben, is running for Congress. Leslie has been receiving criticism from a group of Men's Rights Activists and others for being independent and not being a traditional Congressmen's wife. In this clip, she makes a very important point. Leslie says, "If you want to bake a pie, that's great. If you want to have a career, that's great, too. Do both or neither, it doesn't matter. Just don't judge what someone else has decided to do." What Leslie is saying is that women aren't just supposed to be stay-at-home mom's, and they can be whatever they want to be. Another important point is that we shouldn't judge the women who want to be stay-at-home mom's instead of having a career. This important scene is talked about in this article by Marama Whyte.

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The way Leslie Knope is portrayed by the writers of Parks and Recreation as a feminist and positively. She eventually gets the respect that she deserves from the people she works with and always tries to make everything better for the people of Pawnee. She has helped teach many feminist ideas to audiences' over the years, which is discussed in this article from the Huffington Post by Maureen Ryan. 

Treatment of Women in the Workplace

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The Office is an American comedy show that is based off a show of the same name from the United Kingdom. It began in 2005 and was adapted for American television by Ben Silverman and Greg Daniels. The show ran for nine seasons until it ended in 2013 as stated in this article by NBC. The show is about the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the Dunder Mifflin paper company and its employees. Throughout the show, the women that work at Dunder Mifflin are harassed by their male coworkers. Michael Scott, the manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton, is responsible for a lot of comments and actions that offend his female coworkers, but it is not just Michael that does this. It is nearly all the men in the show that treat the women of the office badly.
There are many instances in the show where the women are made uncomfortable by comments or actions from their male coworkers.

In the episode "Boys and Girls" all the women that work at Dunder Mifflin Scranton have to attend a seminar talking about problems they face in the workplace. Michael is annoyed that he cannot be part of this seminar, so he decides to form his own seminar called Guys in the Workplace because he thinks that it is unfair they the women get their own seminar and the men do not. The men in the office complain about minor things that bother them, like having to use a urinal. The women discuss issues they have with their male coworkers treating them poorly, the lack of respect they get, or being harassed by them.

In "Valentine's Day" Jan Levinson, a head executive and the boss of Michael and all the other branch managers, is attacked for doing her job. One of the branch managers calls her a bitch and does not do what she tells him to do despite the fact that she is his boss. He refuses to follow Jan's instruction to prepare a presentation for her boss, which makes her look bad. Had Jan's position been filled by a man instead of her, the branch managers would follow instructions because they would have respected him more and would not be called a bitch because he is getting stuff done at work. Jan is eventually fired after having a breakdown, which shows from the point of view of The Office's writers that women cannot hold high positions, as stated in this article.

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There are quite a few scenes in the show where Pam, the receptionist, is made uncomfortable by comments from her male coworkers about her body. In "The Coup" there is a scene where Creed, the Director of Quality Assurance, comes over to Pam's desk to look at her breasts because she bought a new shirt. She says that this is why she dresses the way she does for work. Pam does not want men looking at her like that so she feels that cannot dress how she wants, as talked about in this article by Ally Boguhn. During the episode "Diwali" Kevin, one of the accountants, says that a picture of a naked Hindu goddess looks like Pam from the neck down, which means that Kevin is talking about her breasts. After Kevin says this the camera pans to Pam who looks extremely uncomfortable and turns away.

At the beginning of the episode "Women's Appreciation" Phyllis, who works in sales, is flashed and Michael makes jokes about it to the other women, making them uncomfortable. In one scene Dwight, another salesmen, gives the women a dress code and rules to follow so they will not be flashed instead of stopping the person who flashed Phyllis. By saying this, Dwight implies that it was Phyllis' fault for getting flashed because her clothing provoked the flasher. Karen, a saleswomen who just started working in Scranton, just says they want respect. The issue of dress code in the workplace is a result of a double standard for women because they are expected to dress a certain way and live up to impossible standards set by men, as said by Ally Boguhn in her article.

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There are a few instances where the women of Dunder Mifflin Scranton are not even treated like people. In "The Duel" Andy and Dwight, both salesmen, fight for Angela, an accountant, as if she is a prize to be won and not a person. Roy, who is Pam's fiancee for the first few seasons, does not treat her very well and is very possessive over her. There are two scenes in particular that portray just how violent and possessive Roy can be with Pam. The first scene shows Roy at a bar with Pam breaking a mirror because he finds out that she kissed Jim, a salesman in the office. The second scene is the aftermath and shows Roy trying to hurt Jim.

The Office is a perfect example of how women are treated in the workplace. They are harassed, treated like objects, and are blamed for being a victim to something they could not prevent. Critics claim that it is a realistic portrayal of what office life is like, as talked about by Bradford Evans in this article. If this is a realistic example of what working in an office, then that means the way women are treated by their male coworkers is realistic, too.