The Women of The Bold Type

The first season of The Bold Type just concluded and it has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and viewers alike. For a show predicated on the lives of three young women – Jane, Sutton, and Kat – working at a women’s magazine, the writers could have easily made its characters vapid and its plot shallow or overly predictable, or pit the three females together in competition with each other. Instead, these women each occupy their own department within the magazine and only ever try to support each other as they navigate their love lives, sexuality, jobs, and identities.
Analyze the diversity of The Bold Type’s major female characters (Jane, Sutton, Kat, but even Jacqueline and Adena are useful for this discussion): their strengths, faults, and growth throughout the season. How does the characterization of these women, and the obstacles they must overcome, contribute to the show’s overarching theme of female empowerment?