Blog 10: Research Paper Topic

The primary source of my research paper is the Mary Tyler Moore Show Television Series. It portrays the changing role of women during the 1970s and the women’s right movement. The main character Mary Richards is the first single never married, independent career women to be the central character in a television series. This phenomenon wasn’t unheard of in the early 1970s but it was never portrayed on television before then. She shows how women don’t need to be with a man to complete their life. Just as the theme song for the series says you can make it on your own. My paper is centered around women’s rights and the changing role of women and how the Mary Tyler Moore Show was the first of its kind. My classmates (particularly the girls) should care about this topic because women’s rights have significantly changed throughout the years. Women did not always have the opportunities that we have today. The typical woman doesn’t have to go and find a man to start her life. We are completely capable of being independent and start a career on our own, just as Mary Richards demonstrated. Personally I wouldn’t have been able to go to college and seek out a business degree if it was prior to the 1970s. All of the women at college today are extremely lucky when you think about how the “typical” life of a woman used to be. "Typical" meaning a life that was started by a man and now they only make their man happy and take care of the house.