Women in the West Wing

Happy International Women’s Day! When the West Wing first aired, the show received criticism for its lack of strong female characters. All the assistants in the show were women, while a majority of Senior Staff were male. This was reflective of the number of women in government at the time. However, to combat this, the women who operated at the higher levels in the show were also very strong, such as C.J. - the Press Secretary modeled after Dee Dee Myers, who was the first, and up to that point only, female Press Secretary. C.J. then went on later in the series to become chief of staff, while in real life there has never been a female Chief of Staff. Another strong female character is Dr. Abigail Bartlet who throughout the series was unafraid to go toe-to-toe with her husband, President Bartlet. Dr. Nancy McNally is another strong female character, who was the National Security Advisor - even though in real life there had never been a female National Security Advisor (when the show aired in 1999) in our government’s history. Some more strong female characters that were on the show are Ainsely, Donna, Kate, Annabeth, Amy, Joey, Mandy, Mallory, the First Daughters, Gina, Mrs. Landingham, Debbie, Andy, and Helen Santos.

When the show first aired in 1999 there were only 65 women in congress, making the Congress only 12% female. Things have gotten better, with women currently making up 28% of Congress, but that is still not very close to equally representing the 50% of America made up of women. Even so, in recent times women have achieved offices they never had before. For example, we have had three women Secretaries of State: Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton. Also, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi served as the first Speaker of the House from 2007-2011 and again from 2019-2023. And, in 2022 Vice President Kamala Harris was elected as the first-ever female Vice President of the United States.

We never know what is possible in life. Many times we have to see something to believe that it can really happen. This is what can make art, such as television, so powerful. We get to have our minds opened to new scenarios and possibilities. The West Wing, although dealing with realistic problems, is a fictional show. The writers made the choice to make the show more realistic by including fewer women in higher offices than men. But was this the right choice to make? Although it may be accurate, portraying the fact that women are less represented at higher levels than men may only further the cycle, increasing our bias towards believing that men are required for more powerful positions. However, pretending that problems of inequality in our society don’t exist can make it harder to address them.