With the iconic Mary Tyler Moore honored for lifetime achievement at the Screen Actors Guild awards this past Sunday, it got us thinking about about her TV show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the influence it had on women’s role in the work place.

Mary Richards, the show’s title character played by Moore, quickly became the woman’s role model of the 1970s. Never before had a happily single, 30-something working woman been portrayed on television. Ask your grandmothers — she was quite the revelation. 

Smart, independent, and making it on her own, she fought for what she believed was right — including equal pay for equal work. In one particularly memorable episode, Mary confronts her boss, Mr. Grant, after learning the male producer she replaced was paid a higher salary. Not only did she get her raise, but she shed a light one of the most pervasive issues for women in the business world — one we’re grappling with even today.

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A recent study by More magazine, conducted in partnership with the Polling Company/WomanTrend, surveyed 500 women (all with college or higher degrees), ages 35 to 60 and found that many women are feeling less ambitious these days. According to More, “When asked point-blank, 43% of women described themselves as less ambitious now than they were 10 years ago; only 15% reported feeling more ambitious.”

The study, as later reported on MSNBC’s Nightly News, also found that 38% said they didn’t want to deal with the politics, pressure and responsibility that goes with climbing the corporate ladder. Overall, women were willing to trade flexibility and more personal time for titles and pay.

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