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Pop Culture Depictions of Diversity in Business – Mad Men, Super Store, and Barbie
We have come a long way from only having women in the secretarial pool (as depicted in Mad Men), to having women and racial minorities at all levels of the workforce (as depicted in Super Store), to a company that creates a fictional world where women hold all the top positions (Barbie). Both Mad Men and Super Store are American TV shows – Mad Men was made in the present-day to depict life in the world of advertising agencies in New York in the 1960s. Super Store is a series about the issues workers face in a big company in the present day. Barbie is a big-budget film funded by Mattel, the company that created the doll called Barbie. In an article forthcoming in the UC Law Business Journal (formerly Hastings Business Law Journal), I argue that both shows and the movie have interesting things to tell us about present-day conversations and policy fixes to address diversity issues in corporations.