Wise or protective women role models in literature, films and television.

[RainbowsAndPuddings]

A friend of mine is having therapy. One of the tasks she's been set is to come up with names of one wise figure and one protective figure. These can be real life people, or from literature, television or films.

She and I have been discussing this and have found that it's really hard to think of women who fit this category, especially in books, television and film. And she can't think of any man who she could identify with who would fit these roles.

Are we being unreasonable to think there aren't many women portrayed in this manner? We thought we'd ask Mumsnet for suggestions.

For protective I immediately thought of the hundreds of women in TV police or crime dramas. Think of the women in Law and Order SVU,for instance. Or the Chief in Fire Country

You could also use many of them for wise. Anyone in a senior, mentoring role. Like Bailey (spelling?) in Grey's Anatomy.

Honestly, I think there's plenty of examples.

Ripley in the Alien series
Judi Dench's M in Bond
Shuri (??) in Black Panther
Viola Davis in Widows
Jo in Little Women
Charlize Theron in Mad Max Fury Road

I don't watch much telly but Jane Tennyson in Prime Suspect or Miss Marple are wise.

The mum in little women?

Granny Weatherwax from the Terry Pratchett books.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Polgara the sorceress from the Belgariad series

In real life JK Rowling

in literature take your pic from most of the female characters in Harry Potter, most notably McGonagall, Molly, Tonks

Merritt Wever & Toni Collette in Unbelievable

Deborrah Lee Furniss in Shame for protective.

Miss Temple in ‘Jane Eyre’
Margaret Schlegel in ‘Howards End’
Elinor Dashwood in ‘Sense and Sensibility’

This was my first thought.

Urban fantasy characters are often one or both.

Mags in the Hunger Games books.

Pratchett is full of them. All the witches, in their various ways. Angua. Susan. Cheery/Cheri. Lady Sybil. The dwarf king. Esmerelda. Adora Belle Dearheart/Spike.

At least 1 per Jane Austen Book.

In the What Katy did books the girls don't necesarily start as wise, being children, but the sisters are all protective of each other from the start. Clover is pretty sensible as well as protective right through the series.

Three of the four March sisters in Little women. And their mother.

Smilla, in Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow.

Ellie Arroway in Carl Sagan' Contact (book, the film adaptation misses most of her character and half the plot).

Laura Dern's character in the original Jurassic Park.

Ripley in the Alien films.

Tehanu in the later Earthsea books.

Reggie Love in Grisham's The Client.

Dianne Fossey and Jane Goodall.

For fans of feminist employment tribunals, Naomi Cunningham.

Violet Crawley, Dowager Duchess of Grantham (Maggie Smith) was very wise,

A lot of the women in Downton Abbey.

Sylvia Pankhurst.

Samantha in Sex and the City is wiser than she initially appears. And fiercely protective of both her friends and (more unusually) herself. Similarly, Margo in the Good Life - frivolous on the surface, but a staunch friend and ally underneath.

Heaps of female detectives, especially in Scandi Noir.

The Colour Purple has wonderful examples of both.

Mrs Gardiner in Pride and Prejudice. She was a steadying influence on the Bennet girls in contrast to Mrs Bennet! Gave wise advice to Lizzie, and protection to Lydia during the Mr Wickham debacle!

Wise - Miss Marple, Mo Mowlam,
Wise & Protective - Eleanor Dashwood, the late Queen

Whatever Sarah Lancashires character in happy Valley.

Hermione Granger is very astute - not necessarily wise though.

Miss Cackle is protective of Mildred Hubble.

Real life - Wise: Gillian Anderson, Helen Mirren.
Film - Protective: Rhonda in muriels wedding
Film - Wise : Vionne in Chocolate
Film - Wise: Dianne Trainspotting

The book the Frozen River by Ariel Lawton was based on a pioneering midwife Martha Ballard in the 1700s in what is now Canada. She never lost a woman in childbirth and acted as a healer/wise woman to the community.

Katy in what Katy did?

Mammy in Gone with the Wind for both wise and protective.

Also Scarlett's mother Mrs O'Hara and Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind.

Film protective- Louise in Thelma & Louise