Women’s History Month: 15 most influential women in TV history

Kate Mulgrew

Star Trek has always championed equality and delighted in diversity. Back when it floated its first pilot in 1965, it was initially rejected because (among other complaints) the idea of a woman being second in command to a starship was too far-fetched.

Thirty years later, Kate Mulgrew became the first female lead to captain a starship in Star Trek: Voyager (1995). While Voyager gets a lot of flak for its dubious characterization and often mishandled storylines, the decision to have a woman in command was always a boldly confident choice.

Captain Kathryn Janeway enforced the concept that the United Federation of Planets really had eradicated sexism and discrimination from their culture and that women could just as confidently and competently assume command as could their male peers.

Katee Sackhoff

Katee Sackhoff makes a practice of playing strong female characters. From Kara “Starbuck” Thrace in Battlestar Galactica (2003) to Vic Moretti in Longmire (2012). Sackhoff’s characters often challenge our concept of femininity, blurring the lines between traditional masculine and feminine characteristics.

Sackhoff’s characters are often brash, crass, aggressive, arrogant — what might be considered “unladylike” behavior. But what these characters teach us is that these traits can be as much a part of what we identify as ‘feminine” as stereotypical traits. There’s nothing less feminine about being a tomboy except what our socially constructed view of femininity reinforces.

A co-worker once asked me, honestly curious, if I considered myself to be particularly feminine. It’s because of women like Katee Sackhoff that I can challenge constructed gender stereotypes and still feel completely feminine.