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I started this as an examination of where we've come from and how far we have come - but whilst in some respects the world has changed greatly, in some ways we haven't come so far at all.
We now have a western media culture that is able to show strong and heroic female characters - serious and respected female scientists (though the gender ratio of 'experts' called on for comment by news media is overwhelmingly male) - female characters who have deep and flawed internal lives that don't necessarily revolve around the impossble task of balancing being female with having a job - female comics and female leads - shows and movies that feature female characters as the centre of their tale (again the male to female ratio on these things is still not balanced) and so on.
But - in both the US and the UK, we still can't seem to cope with the idea of a female, late night talk show host. An odd one maybe - usually for short runs (I think the US has had 2 or 3 at most - one being Joan Rivers in the 80s, for one series). Women host daytime talk shows - because that's when women, as mothers and home makers are a bigger demographic - and there is an inherent assumption, not just that women want to listen to other women, but that the people who want to listen to women...are other women.
There's also still an assumption that women are second fiddle as comedians. Go to a youtube vid of a male comic and you might find comments about him being great or him being shit - but you won't find anyone saying 'See, men just can't be funny'. But that does get levelled at women. I've seen serious comments from people saying they just don't like female comedians - they just don't find them funny.
Late night talk shows - led by male comedians. Daytime talk shows - led by women (sometimes comedians). Comedy panel shows in the UK - overwhelmingly male. To the point that the BBC recently made a rule that panel shows had to include at least one female guest - because so oftenn it was just two teams of three men, with a male host. Very occasionally there might be a woman on one o fthe teams. Having more than one woman on a panel show is very rare. Panel shows are a huge part of the tv landscape in the UK.
We have come a very long way. But there are still some quirks and survivals that make no sense.
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