Women's Leadership in Popular Culture: : Lauren D. Furey: Bloomsbury Academic

Women's Leadership in Popular Culture

Description

This edited volume examines mass media portrayals of women leaders and other powerful women in popular culture. Contributors argue that increased media visibility and representation can lead to more widespread acceptance of women as societal leaders.

The book employs an interdisciplinary, intersectional, and international approach to its coverage of these portrayals and their meanings for society and gender norms. Through a feminist lens, contributors examine these cultural representations within the context of gender, race, sexuality, and social class/economic status. Contributors write from varied disciplinary backgrounds, including journalism, media studies, communication, entertainment studies, sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science, information science, business, and education.

List of Figures and Tables

Introduction: “You Can't Be What You Can't See”: A Case for Representation of Women Leaders in Popular Culture
Tracy Everbach, Newly Paul, and Gwendelyn S. Nisbett

PART I: Depictions of Women in Government, Industry, and Academia

1. She's No “Lady President”: Exploring the Evolution of Women Presidents on Television
Lauren D. Furey and Andrea E. Hall

2. Class, Race, and the Complications of Women's Leadership in Superstore
Holly Holladay

3. Academic Leadership and Women: The Chair and Intersectionalities of Women, Power, and the Academy
Lora Helvie-Mason and Kelli Styron

4. “Maybe It's Time for More Women to Be in Charge”: Breaking Stereotypes of Political Leadership in Parks and Recreation
Aubree A. Herman, Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter, and Thomas R. Wagner

5. A Tale of Two Ginas: An Analysis of Media Representation of Afro-Latina Female Leadership in the TV series Suits and Pearson
Mia Long Anderson and Creshema Murray

6. Unraveling Conventions: Women's Leadership Insights from How to Get Away with Murder
Marquita Smith, Erica Avent, and Vanessa Charlot

PART II: Women's Leadership Portrayals in Music, Movies, and Sports

7. 'Do You Want Some Company?': Musicians Brandi Carlile, Joni Mitchell, and Tanya Tucker and the Transformational Potential of Feminist-centered Reverse Mentoring
Jacqueline Lambiase and Carolyn Bronstein

8. Glitter, Pink, and Politics: A Rhetorical Analysis of Taylor Swift's Miss Americana's Public Pedagogy and Feminist Consciousness Raising
Emily Maly

9. Feminist and Queer Icon Uncensored? Exploring Audience Visual Performativity at Jolin Tsai's Ugly Beauty World Tours on Social Media
Kedi Zhou

10. Women Athletes Lead College Basketball to New Heights
Tracy Everbach and Gwendelyn S. Nisbett

11. Transformative Leadership When Women “Talk”: Aspirational Images in Sarah Polley's Women Talking
Catherine Dobris and Rachel Davidson

12. The Plasticity of President Barbie: Colorblind Erasure and Misogynoir in Representational Diversity
Michelle Laura Flood

PART III: Sci-fi and Fantasy Representations of Women's Leadership

13. The Servant Mammy: Reading Lovecraft Country's Hippolyta Freeman Circumvents Through Servant Leadership Approach
Aisha Powell, Nicole M. Westrick, and Deanna Hayden

14. The Moral Complexities of Female Leadership in Arrival
Gina Marcello

15. The Woman King: Decolonizing the Stories of African Women's Strength Through Popular Media Culture
Felicity Sena Dogbatse and Ama Boatemaa Appiah-Kubi

16. The Intersectionality of Zhao Pan'er: Gender, Class, and Tradition in the Chinese Context
Zhaoxi (Josie) Liu

Product details

Published	02 Oct 2025
Format	Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition	1st
Extent	304
ISBN	9781978759565
Imprint	Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations	4 bw illus and 3 tables
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Anthology Editor

Tracy Everbach

Tracy Everbach is Professor of Journalism in the M…

Anthology Editor

Gwendelyn S. Nisbett

Gwendelyn S. Nisbett is Associate Professor of Pub…

Anthology Editor

Newly Paul

Newly Paul is a media and politics researcher and…

Contributor

Lauren D. Furey

Contributor

Andrea E. Hall

Contributor

Holly Holladay

Contributor

Lora Helvie-Mason

Contributor

Kelli Styron

Contributor

Aubree A. Herman

Contributor

Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter

Contributor

Thomas R. Wagner

Contributor

Mia Long Anderson

Contributor

Creshema Murray

Contributor

Marquita Smith

Contributor

Erica Avent

Contributor

Vanessa Charlot

Contributor

Jacqueline Lambiase

Contributor

Carolyn Bronstein

Contributor

Emily Maly

Contributor

Kedi Zhou

Contributor

Catherine Dobris

Contributor

Rachel Davidson

Contributor

Michelle Laura Flood

Contributor

Aisha Powell

Contributor

Nicole M. Westrick

Contributor

Deanna Hayden

Contributor

Gina Marcello

Contributor

Felicity Sena Dogbatse

Contributor

Ama Boatemaa Appiah-Kubi

Contributor

Zhaoxi Liu

With Women's Leadership in Popular Culture, Tracy Everbach, Gwendelyn S. Nisbett, and Newly Paul offer a resplendent assortment of perspectives on the way women leaders are, and have been, represented in media. This edited volume offers a truly intersectional collection of essays that examine depictions of women through the lenses of race, class, gender, orientation and more. Undergraduate students will enjoy its contemporary media examples that include popular music, TV shows, and sports, while researchers and graduate students will appreciate the deft incorporation of relevant theory. All readers will take heart, too, in the volume's well-grounded research, which yes, covers the predominant stereotypes of the past, but also points to the ways representations of women leaders are, in some cases, changing for the better.

Mary Angela Bock, Professor of Journalism and Media, University of Texas at Austin, USA