Women In Power: Representation And Impact On American Culture

Erika Cornelius Smith is a renowned expert on depictions of women in fiction. As the Director of Research Strategy at the University of Illinois, she has dedicated her career to understanding the representation of women in popular culture. Her work has focused on the earliest film to feature a female president of the United States, "The Last Man on Earth," released in 1924.

Karrin Vasby Anderson is a scholar and co-author of the book "Woman President." Her research centers on the impact of a female president on traditional masculinity and heteronormative family values. She argues that, in the past, "such a character may have been off-putting to conservative viewers.".. as the US presidency is often seen as an icon of masculinity.

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The Last Man on Earth is one of the earliest films in history to feature a female president of the US. It set the tone for the films and shows that came next. One hundred years ago, a woman was elected as the president of the United States. This didn't happen in reality, of course, but a fictional female president did appear in a film that was released exactly a century ago, in 1924 – and it's one of the earliest surviving on-screen examples of a woman in that role.