Electronic Media and Social Inequality

Radio and Television

Early developments in radio created opportunities for women to engage in the new medium. Some women received training from the U.S. Navy as radio operators during World War I; other women participated as wireless amateurs, or hams, in clubs and Girl Scout activities. Entertainment programming on radio featured the comedic talents of Gracie Allen and Lucille Ball. Other programming targeted housewives, with shows featuring advice about housekeeping and consumer products. Before and during World War II, radio recruited women to join the workforce and support the war effort. After the shift from radio networks to formats in the 1950s and 1960s, much of the radio programming moved to television, and women's roles in radio shifted to on-air talent and production activities. Currently, about a dozen women run their own national radio programs, and about 20 percent of radio news directors are women. National Public Radio (NPR) offers more opportunities for hosting: Three of its five major shows feature women. Also, women have held top positions in NPR, including chief executive officer and head of news.

The segue from radio programming to television defined early possibilities for the representation of women. Like radio, television became a domestic medium. It attracted domestic audiences through shows such as The Kate Smith Hour (1950–54), which offered advice and product announcements. Shows such as soap operas—another carryover from radio—attempted to draw homemakers into watching during the afternoons. Evening programming such as situation comedies, or sitcoms, affirmed women's roles within the home or in secretarial positions subordinate to those of male authority figures.

Some women played important roles in early television. Lucille Ball changed the nature of television production with her show I Love Lucy (1951–57). She requested that the show be recorded on film [Page 74]instead of performed live for broadcast. The major broadcasters turned her down, so she and her husband, Desi Arnaz, funded the program's production through their own company, Desilu. In using film cameras, Ball created the opportunity for syndication, proving to the networks that reruns offered an additional source of income. Ball's innovation still defines the industry today.

A member of the U.S. Navy updates an ouija board—a system used to track the movement of every airplane on a carrier—in Baltimore, Maryland. During World War I, the U.S. Navy trained women as radio operators, marking the first time women were accepted into certain branches of the armed forces.

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