Entertainment-Focused Narrative and Culture Change Practice
Our Re-Scripting Gender, Work, Family, and Care initiative provides television and film content advisement and amplification to engage audiences and advance a gender equitable, caring country.
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May 2, 2025
84% of U.S. streaming viewers are interested in seeing more depictions of work, family, caregiving, and gender equity on screen, according to research conducted for the Better Life Lab at New America's entertainment initiative by the research firm MarketCast. Read more in Variety!
What we do
The entertainment initiative at New America's Better Life Lab advises entertainment creators on stories related to gender, work, family, and care and amplifies great shows and films. We aim to see more, and more authentic, stories on screen that entertain and engage audiences by reflecting their lived experiences and aspirations for the future.
As you'll see below, we provide tip sheets and writers' guides, present to industry and public audiences, offer earned and social media commentary, and partner onsocial impact campaigns to support accurate, relatable, and aspirational representation and catalyze audience conversation and action.
Who we are
Housed within a non-profit, non-partisan think tank, we are researchers, policy, and narrative experts working toward a time when all people in the United States can care for themselves and their loved ones with pride rather than apology; work in jobs that offer dignity and fair pay; and experience their work and family lives as integrated rather than in tension. We often publish our insights in the press and provide research-backed insights to journalists, policymakers, and entertainment stakeholders.
In service to this vision, you can count on us for information on these topics and others:
- gender roles in work, family, and caregiving, as well as family dynamics in households
- wages, working conditions, workplace practices, and workplace discrimination
- intersections between health, stress and work, family, and care issues
- pregnancy and reproductive health stories in the context of work and wages, family needs, and care
- policies/practices related to paid leave, work schedules, child care, care for loved ones
- variations in access to policies in U.S. states and cities and by demographics
Contact our initiative's founder/director, Vicki Shabo (shabo@newamerica.org) or senior associate, Jasmine Heyward (heyward@newamerica.org) to learn more. And sign up for our Setting the Scene newsletter, where we share new research, data, and analysis, storytelling guidance, and recent on-screen highlights.