The Good Wife (CBS/C4: 2009-present)
The Good Wife has run for seven seasons. Alicia Florrick is a politician's wife who has to return to work after her unfaithful husband has been imprisoned for paying for prostitutes with public money. She is constructed literally as 'the good wife' who stands by her man at a press conference, shoulders her domestic responsibilities for her two children singe-handed after his conviction and also holds down a skilled job as a respected lawyer.
As well as Alicia, the series features a powerful female boss, Diane, who holds her own in the cut-throat world of the boardroom where she plots to remove her opposition and secures her own position of power. She is so successful that she is eventually on track to become a judge. Diane is childless and intially uninterested in marriage.
An unconventional female representation is that of Kalinda, the law firm's private detective who is fearless in uncover investigations and unafraid to use her sexual power to manipulate people. Bold, cunning, intelligent and ambitious, Kalinda nevertheless nurses a dark secret: before she ever met Alicia, whom she comes to serve devotedly, she slept with Alicia's husband. Kalida values her independence and guards her privacy ferociously. She trusts no-one.
All three representations are of strong, accomplished women in the world of work. Only Alicia is seen in the domestic sphere.
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