Hillary’s Clinton’s presidential bid in 2016 was undoubtedly influential. “Certainly the visibility of candidates like Hillary Clinton made a significant impact on these types of characters,” says Smith. “I don’t think Elizabeth McCord [in Madam Secretary], for instance, is exactly based on Clinton, but there was a level of seriousness to Clinton’s candidacy which lent itself to McCord’s candidacy. And that show really struck me as different from the mould in a lot of ways, both in that it was trying to address the stereotypes in prior depictions, and it was trying to move past them.”
In general, Smith adds, the more women in politics there are in reality, the more there are in fiction – and, potentially, vice versa. “These shows were made when there were very serious candidates running not just for president but for governor and for positions in the Senate and Congress, so having real examples cues writers and those in the industry to start thinking about storylines with those characters. Reciprocally, how they then craft those characters and storylines shapes how we imagine those individuals will act in office, so I see it as a feedback loop.”
It’s worth considering a film that was ahead of its time… most of the way through, anyway. Kisses for My President is a 1964 comedy in which Polly Bergen plays the president, and Fred MacMurray plays her husband, who struggles with being a “male first lady”. “It actually offers a pretty progressive depiction of a woman president,” says Anderson. “She’s a smart and skilled politician voted into office by a united and enthusiastic cohort of women voters.”
The film didn’t carry its progressive premise all the way through, however. After the president faints, she discovers that she is pregnant, so she resigns from office to devote herself to motherhood. “You can’t work and be pregnant – you can’t work and raise a family, that’s absurd,” laughs Smith. “And if the president can’t work and raise a family, that definitely sends a message to the rest of women in society.”
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