Films about working women

The best of everything - explores every possible combination of boss and secretary.

All about Eve contains this immortal speech which scared all of us teen girls in the 50’s and 60’s into seeking marriage.

Funny business, a woman's career - the things you drop on your way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman. That's one career all females have in common, whether we like it or not: being a woman. Sooner or later, we've got to work at it, no matter how many other careers we've had or wanted. And in the last analysis, nothing's any good unless you can look up just before dinner or turn around in bed, and there he is. Without that, you're not a woman. You're something with a French provincial office or a book full of clippings, but you're not a woman. Slow curtain, the end.

Working Girl

A favorite- Telefon, a strange spy film about men who have been pre programmed to committ sabotage in the US. It s not bad , but the remarkable thing is two women characters. Lee Remick plays one of the spies. She in chic, smart, very good at her job, gets involved with men on her terms. She is cheerful with no trace of bitterness, takes her place by natural right. She is one of the earliest working women in film whose story arc is not really about being a working woman.

The other remarkable character is Dorothy Putterman, played by Tyne Daly. She is the tech whiz at a government office investigating the sabotage. She is brilliant, mouthy, dresses all in brown, treats the men like idiots which they mostly are. She has no interest in sexy chic, she just wants to do what she’s doing. Knowing what a bright actress Daly is, I imagine she might have had some input on the character. She is not bitter, she is not striving to find her voice. She knows the men are dependent on her skills, and all she wants is to have them listen to her .

An honorable mention is Thomas Crown Affair. Faye Dunaway is a clever intuitive insurance investigator using her beauty as part of her skill set . It’s not quite “ I am Woman” but she is very aware of her value and the men both respect and resent her. Also the wonderful Selma Diamond as part of the Boston Police, wrecking any man who comes near him with her buzz saw voice.

Ginger Rogers -- Oscared as the original 'Working Girl' in 1940's KITTY FOYLE.

Jean Arthur as Frank Capra's working girl in MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON.

Lois Ames (Kay Francis) is the editor of a classy women's fashion magazine the '400 Magazine'  When her personal secretary, can no longer take the long hours of work, she is sacked. Lois hires Tom Sherman (David Manners), a handsome man who happens to come by the office to demonstrate a rowing machine which he sells...
A highlight of William Dieterle's  Man Wanted  (1932) is Louis Ames art deco office

                                 

Madame Curie (1943)

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