The Empathy Advantage

1Meet Your New Workforce

Fifty years ago, television depicted the working family in simplistic form. Each morning, a straight white male kissed his dutiful wife as she handed him his briefcase and sent him off to work at an office job, surrounded by other white men, occasionally interrupted by the single Gal Friday. Meanwhile, Mom stayed home to care for the house and raise the couple's precocious children, helped from time to time by a housekeeper or handy man, often the only characters of color seen on television.

That classic television script persisted well beyond the years when women joined the workforce. Over time, the media slowly integrated racial and cultural diversity into its prime time programming, but the male business boss remained the go‐to script. Media reflected the stereotypes, world view, and likenesses of the people who held power and sway. The workforce the media depicted in that era put the “white” in white‐collar jobs. Women in the workforce were an anomaly. The roles depicting blue‐collar service and domestic workers tended to go to people of color. Even as we watched, laughed, and took some familiar comfort in these depictions, we had more than a hunch that television didn't reflect our reality.

In fact, reality was quite drastically different. Women were 34% of the workforce in 1950, a number that rose to 38% in 1960, 43% in 1970, and sits at 47% today where it is expected to remain.¹ Unfortunately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics didn't document data ...