02 Jun Female Workplace Badasses

Posted at 15:27h in The DW Hotlist by

Hollywood has a long history of films with powerful female characters in the world of work, from Rosalind Russell as intrepid reporter Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday, to Melanie Griffith as Tess McGill in Working Girl, to Jessica Chastain as Elizabeth Sloane in the 2016 thriller Miss Sloane. (And if you consider “Amazon Warrior” a job title, we can include Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman this past summer!)

In recent years, women have been featured as protagonists in the workplace, especially in juicy and complex television series.

Here are some of DWís favorite female badasses (with a heart of gold, most of the time).

Christine Baranski as corporate attorney Diane Lockhart on The Good Wife

Viola Davis as defense attorney and law professor Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder

Claire Foy as the indomitable Queen Elizabeth in The Crown

Taraji P. Henson as Cookie Lyon, the mogul in Empire

Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick, the master litigator in The Good Wife

Tracee Ellis Ross as Dr. Rainbow Johnson on Black-ish

Kerry Washington as crisis-management guru Olivia Pope on Scandal

Robin Wright as Claire Underwood (ruthless wife and behind-the-scenes political operative-cum-president) in House of Cards

Sense a pattern here? Most of these characters are attorneys, politicians, or political operatives. Hollywood, how about a film or TV series about a female CEO or chief diversity officer?