To understand the triumph, one must first understand the wasteland. In the studio system of the 1930s and 40s, stars like Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn fought for strong roles, but even they aged into character parts by their 50s. By the 1980s and 90s, the "mommy mafia" took over. While male leads like Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, and Jack Nicholson aged into romantic leads opposite women thirty years their junior, actresses like Meryl Streep (who famously lamented that after 40, she was offered only "hags and witches") fought for scraps.

This paper explores the shifting landscape for mature women in entertainment and cinema