Overview

Between the nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century television transformed from an idea to an institution. In Gender and Early Television, Sarah Arnold traces women’s relationship to the new medium of television across this period in the UK and USA. She argues that women played a crucial role in its development both as producers and as audiences long before the ‘golden age’ of television in the 1950s. Beginning with the emergence of media entertainment in the mid-nineteenth century and culminating in the rise of the post-war television industries, Arnold claims that, all along the way, women had a stake in television. As keen consumers of media, women also helped promote television to the public by performing as ‘television girls’. Women worked as directors, producers, technical crew and announcers. It seemed that television was open to women. However, as Arnold shows, the increasing professionalisation of television resulted in the segregation of roles. Production became the sphere of men and consumption the sphere of women. While this binary has largely informed women’s role in television, through her analysis, Arnold argues that it has not always been the case.

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9781780769769

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Reviews

Interrogating television's roots in theater and vaudeville, this smart new book shows how technology, programming, and audience research shaped US and UK women's cultural roles in the 20th century. An important book for scholars studying media, gender, and cultural history. -- Jane Marcellus, Middle Tennessee State University, USA

Gender and Early Television makes an important contribution to our understanding of women’s relationship to this new medium in its formative years. ... this is a highly engaging and insightful read that throws much needed new light on an under-researched topic. * Critical Studies in Television * Interrogating television’s roots in theater and vaudeville, this smart new book shows how technology, programming, and audience research shaped US and UK women’s cultural roles in the 20th century. An important book for scholars studying media, gender, and cultural history. -- Jane Marcellus, Middle Tennessee State University, USA This is a fine addition to the scholarship that demonstrates women’s elided contribution to early television and the media industries...One hopes it will be used in Media Studies Departments the world over to demonstrate that women were both there from the beginning, and that the potential of their involvement remains unrealised. * Women's History Today *

Author Information

Sarah Arnold is Lecturer in Media at Maynooth University, Ireland. Her previous books include Maternal Horror Film: Melodrama and Motherhood (2013) and the co-authored Film Handbook (2013). Her research focuses on women and film and television. She is a regular contributor to the Critical Studies in Television blog and RTE Brainstorm.

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