Gender, genre, and quality' television: The field of television production in america from 1951 - 201

Gender has a major impact on how society is organized. Societal processes taking place within fields continually shape and recreate our concepts of man and woman. Within television this is no difierent. Although a field closely tied to capitalistic economic interests, television has been afiorded a slight amount of autonomy that has allowed certain shows in certain genres to be engaged with by audiences much like literature that is rich in symbolism and open to multiple interpretations. This study addresses how gender has structured the field over three distinct time periods as it expanded and provided men with opportunities and resources to create television shows that were more film like and less overtly commercial. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu and Joan Acker, television is a site of multiple inequality regimes situated primarily in genres and sub-genres where many of the positions are only available for men to occupy. These inequality regimes are intimately tied to the class processes within the field of television production. Findings suggest that drama is the site where gender is contested most often, and the amount of sub-genres associated with drama and male show creators is indicative of this contestation. Within these subgenres, men are the ideal show creator more. These sites of masculine domination attract more film talent and break down barriers between television and film for both male and female acting talent.