Carol A. Stabile

Based on archival research on women working in television in the late 1940s and early 1950s, this project examines the forms of employment progressive women were seeking in the new industry, as well as the opposition they faced from anti-communist men and women opposed to viewpoints they considered un-American. Combining standpoint epistemology with archival methods, the book analyzes unpublished archival materials, published works, and copious secondary sources – print media articles, blacklisting publications, FBI records, and transcripts of the House Un-American Activities Committee’s hearings -- in order to document the roles these women had hoped to play in the new industry as well as the content they dreamed of contributing to a medium they recognized would play a central role in US culture in the second half of the twentieth century.