As the saying goes, “If you can see it, you can be it.” In popular culture, women have been portrayed as presidents, cabinet members, and corporate executives, and those portrayals have had an influence, even if they have not yet led to the top American prize.

Women’s Suffrage Movement

The founding of the film industry coincided with the 20th century movement for women’s suffrage. Almost immediately, a suffrage film genre emerged, made by men. The melodramas showed familial wreckage caused by women’s involvement in the suffrage movement, while the comedies frequently poked fun at men and women switching roles. Suffragists were frequently portrayed by men in dresses.

The 1924 sci-fi comedy, The Last Man on Earth, mocked its powerful women, who were left running the Earth after “masculitis” wiped out all men over the age of 14, save one. The women end up fighting over the lone survivor and like so many films that would follow, it ended in love and childbirth.

That film was followed by two animated shorts, Betty Boop for President (1932) and Olive Oyl for President (1948). Since then, there have been multiple portrayals of women in power, but only a fraction as many as those of men.

In 2019, the Geena Davis Institute, which has collected data on women in Hollywood for two decades, partnered with Plan International on the study “Rewrite Her Story,” an examination of how film and media stereotypes affect the aspirations of girls and young women. The study, across the media of 20 countries, found that 42 percent of male characters were depicted as leaders, in contrast with 24 percent of female characters (in addition, the Geena Davis Institute has found dramatically fewer female leads compared with men). Of those fictional female leaders, 30 percent were dressed in revealing clothing. They were more often shown nude, sexually harassed or objectified. On the positive side, those women were depicted as being more intelligent than their male counterparts.

Here are some more contemporary depictions of women in power. There are some common threads: Women succeeding their husbands as president; more comedies than dramas; more television than film.

“30 Rock” On the NBC sitcom she created, Tina Fey plays Liz Lemon, the head writer of a television sketch comedy, paralleling Fey’s own experience on “Saturday Night Live.” Lemon is portrayed a brilliant professional corralling a company of eccentrics; like Mary Tyler Moore before her, Lemon’s personal life suffers as her career soars.

“Madam Secretary” Tea Leoni plays Elizabeth McCord, a political science professor and former CIA operative appointed Secretary of State. The show depicted McCord as astute and strong, and supported in her home life by her husband, played by Tim Daly.

“Veep” Julia Louis-Dreyfuss plays Selina Meyer, the foul-mouthed, narcissistic vice president in this HBO satire of Washington politics. As often happens on TV, Meyer ends up as president – and in keeping with the acidic comedy, botches that job as well.

“The Simpsons” Lisa Simpson’s promising future has been alluded to on the animated comedy for more than 30 years. In the 2000 episode “Bart to the Future,” Bart sees into the future, where his sister has become president, succeeding Donald Trump.

“24” Cherry Jones played the U.S. president on this action-suspense series. She’s made a career of powerful women, most recently playing a media titan on the HBO series “Succession.” As Jones described her “24” character to Vulture: “She’s a combination of Eleanor Roosevelt, Golda Meier, and John Wayne. The day just gets harder and harder and harder. I have to keep girding my loins to survive.”

Don’t Look Up Meryl Streep played Janie Orlean in this satirical allegory about climate change. Her character was based on a blend of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Mars Attacks! In Tim Burton’s 1996 sci-fi comedy, most of the First Family and government are wiped out in an alien attack. As a result, 15-year-old Natalie Portman played the First Daughter, thrust into the role of president.