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Set in a newsroom whose female researchers sue for equal
employment rights, the series lands in the midst of a national
conversation about sexism and sexual harassment that has
dominated the final weeks of the U.S. presidential campaign.
"It's all like some horrible, acid flashback for me," said Lynda
Obst, executive producer on the show, which debuts on Amazon's
streaming platform on Friday.
Obst, a former journalist who lived through women's liberation
in the 1970s, said multiple allegations of groping by Republican
White House contender Donald Trump and his lewd language about
women in a recently leaked 2005 tape, felt "like the worst day
at work in 1969."
"I think it's kind of wonderful that the TV show gets to show
you what it was like in the workplace back then ... and at the
same time show that in some terrible way our presidential
candidate exhibits the same behavior," she said.
Trump has denied accusations of inappropriate conduct made by at
least 11 women.
"Good Girls Revolt" is inspired by a landmark sexual
discrimination case brought against Newsweek magazine in 1970 by
women researchers who were barred from working as reporters, all
of whom were men.
It also explores how women's liberation upended notions of
marriage, career, motherhood, sex and workplace relationships
between men and women.
If that sounds like "Mad Men" for journalists, it is not the
intention, said the show's creator, Dana Calvo.
"'Mad Men' was dark, internal, sexy. But our show has a sunnier
outlook, in part because women aren't so internal," she said.
"Good Girls Revolt" looks at changes in gender power structures
in the 1970s but keeps the tone light.
"It was wild! We wanted to show young women that feminism is
fun. It looks good, we dressed great, and it's sexy. Don't go
around thinking that feminism is this grumpy, grim thing that
you don't want to be part of," said Obst.
Calvo hopes that the series will demonstrate that "nobody needs
to give you permission to change the world, that you can take
little steps."
"I don't think a day went by on the set when we didn't think how
far we (women) had come, and how much we still have to do" she
said.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Steve
Orlofsky)
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