Hayes, Ashley, B.S., Western Kentucky University, 2007.
Master of Science, Fall Commencement, 2010.
Major: Human Ecology
Dress, Dialogue, and Gender in The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1970-1977
Thesis directed by Jenna Tedrick Kuttruff, Professor
Pages in thesis: 78 Words in abstract: 303
ABSTRACT
The Mary Tyler Moore Show has been recognized as the first television program to feature a single career oriented female, the lead character Mary Richards. Many aspects of the show have been researched, including whether Mary Richards could be considered a true feminist role model. The show, which aired from 1970-1977, is important as it reflects both a change in television culture as well as a change in American culture.
This purpose of this study is to examine how comments regarding Mary Richards dress depicted her gender role throughout the seven years the series aired. In addition, the study examines if gender roles on The Mary Tyler Moore Show reflected by changes in perceived gender roles in America at that time.
A sample of 91 episodes, out of the 168 total episodes (54 percent of the total population), was used and data collection included questions on the type of comments made regarding Marys dress. Thirty-seven comments were recorded, the most frequent being made by Mary Richards herself. None of the comments made rejected traditional gender roles, although comments were less likely to support these roles in the later years of the show. An important example of Marys dress and gender role is when she first wore pants to the workplace in 1972. However, Mary wearing pants to work occurred years later than many women wearing pants in the corporate workplace in America.
Based on this qualitative research, The Mary Tyler Moore Show was behind the changing cultural norms in society from 1970-1977. The biggest issues, as well as the biggest change in gender roles took place in the third and fourth season of the show (1972-1974). Marys gender role was identified as traditional at the beginning of the series but slowly evolved into less traditional, although it was never ahead of the curve.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-11162010-004924 |
| Date | 17 November 2010 |
| Creators | Hayes, Ashley |
| Contributors | Kuttruff, Dr. Jenna Tedrick, Mitchell, Dr. Katherine Stamps, Negulescu, Dr. Ioan |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11162010-004924/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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