Mary B. Trevor and Cynthia Bemis Abrams have published "Power Plays: Women and Progressive Television Battle Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment" in Volume 9 of the Howard Human & Civil Rights Law Review. The introduction explains the author perspectives and writing objectives:
The authors of this article, Baby Boomers who grew up in the mid-to-late twentieth century United States, experienced the impact of Title VII, Title IX, Roe v. Wade, and other women’s rights milestones. These milestones did not alter women’s lives overnight, and hoped-for progress still lagged by century’s end. But legal and cultural developments did gradually effect significant changes to women’s status in many aspects of daily life, including, to some extent, the portrayal of women in contemporary popular culture–as exemplified, during the pre- and early Internet era, by television. This article will describe how prime-time television depictions of one type of sexual harassment–quid pro quo–reflected and supported those positive changes.
The article concludes:
The quid pro quo harassment episodes analyzed in this article were products of their time, and various aspects may seem strange to the modern viewer. Further, the harassment situations were occasionally left unresolved by the episode’s end or were resolved in ways that current viewers may find frustrating or objectionable. Some women characters relied on their own wiles and judgment to challenge themselves, their harasser, or the system. Only occasionally did a character call the harassment an abuse of power, a relatively new concept at the time having nothing to do with romance or how the woman dressed. Only one threatened a lawsuit, and only a few initiated a complaint. But references to the possibility of legal action did increase as legal protections themselves increased. In the aggregate, the episodes demonstrate both the characters’ awareness of legal protections being put in place and their lack of confidence in the power of the safeguards to help them in their daily lives. In that regard, perhaps the episodes will not feel strange to the modern viewer.
Yet, despite their shortcomings, the episodes discussed in this article represented a step forward. Many scenes highlighted the woman’s agency, a liberation from what had been portrayed for women in the past. Discussions in many episodes assured women having similar experiences that harassing behavior from a superior (or anyone) is inappropriate and painful, and that if allowed to continue, might happen to other women. Women and girls who were uncomfortable with sharing these sorts of stories, or who were the first in their families to work outside the home, could learn through television that they were not alone. History could never document how many watercooler conversations about “last night’s episode of ___” were also partly informed by a reallife situation left unshared. But recognition of the reality of harassment served an important role.
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Viewers of the last half of the twentieth century grew up bombarded by images and stories that were often far from the reality of the lived experiences of women. The thirty-eight television episodes discussed in this article that took on quid pro quo harassment as a serious topic were in the minority. They showed viewers that even by the end of the century, more than thirty years after Title VII’s enactment, challenging sexual harassment at work remained a difficult battle that often had a frustrating outcome. The #MeToo movement and related stories in this century show us that now, sixty years after Title VII’s enactment, workplace quid pro quo harassment continues to happen. It would seem that despite law and society’s professed intolerance of the (mostly male) power play, some harassers still find indulging in abusive behavior to be worth the risk of criminal charges, public accusations, or civil lawsuits.
Television can teach us more about the shifting attitudes and laws around quid pro quo harassment, and help us understand why, even today, such power plays still happen in the workforce. A host of other progressive legal and social changes also bear study. The proliferation of streaming channels that need content to thrive gives us hope that more old series will become available. Television’s storytelling serves as a time capsule enabling us to further understand how life influences art and how art can change life and society for the better.