In a 90’s kind of world, the television show Living Single was ahead of its time. From Khadejia, to Regine, to Sinclaire, each character personified the importance of representation in the arts, but Maxine “The Maverick” Shaw, played by Erika Alexander, had a tangible impact on the culture while simultaneously inspiring generations of future Black women lawyers, judges, politicians, and more. Women of color, most specifically Black women in powerful roles in the public sector such as Stacy Abrams, Marilyn Mosby, Ayanna Presley, and even our favorite on-screen baby sister Marsai Martin have all personally admitted that Maxine Shaw had a direct influence on the professional paths they chose. These paths weren’t just rooted in navigating career choices, but they were also guided by the intentionality of living ON purpose and living IN purpose.
After having these conversations for years with former and current Living Single viewers of all ages, it prompted the show’s creator Yvette Lee Bowser to collaborate with Color Farm Media, The Langston League, and Yvette Lee Bowser’s The Butterfly Foundation to conduct data-driven research on the impact of Black representation in the media, with a specific focus on the character Maxine Shaw, and then, the Maxine Shaw Effect was born.
Yvette Lee Bowser is the first and youngest African-American woman to produce and direct her own television series, and she is widely known for her work in the comedy and sitcom genres. Bowser, a Stanford University alumnus, started out as an apprentice writer on A Different World, using her own undergraduate experiences to inform and inspire her storytelling. She has profoundly shaped television, particularly by developing and producing programs that showcase African American viewpoints and experiences, leading six programs into the timeline spot. Bowser is recognized as a pioneer, having paved the way for more diverse and inclusive television portrayals of Black life through programs such as Living Single, Girlfriends, Half and Half, Black-Ish, and Insecure, which examined friendship, family, romance, and how Black women balance personal life and their respective careers. Bowser is committed to advancing the culture and uses television as a platform to change how people view women and African Americans. She has led the Writer’s Guild of America-sponsored Showrunner Training Program for over ten years, and in 2003, she founded The Butterfly Foundation to help disadvantaged children gain access to better education.
The Butterfly Foundation is a partnership between Yvette Lee Bowser and the global gender justice non-profit organization The Representation Project to explore the impact of Maxine Shaw as a role model, which came to life after years of feedback from the public that always led her back to “The Maverick”. She then, with the help of partners such as Microsoft, she met with Color Farm Media executives Alexander and Ben Arnon, who also produced the John Lewis documentary Good Trouble, and commissioned the study through a team of researchers and organizers like The Langston League.
Color Farm Media was established in 2017 as a production company that makes content for podcasts, streaming services, television, and movies. Their goal is to provide marginalized perspectives a platform to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the media.
The Langston League is an educational consulting firm that prioritizes engaging students of all ages through immersive learning experiences by specializing in creating curriculum materials that are culturally relevant, with a particular emphasis on Black history and pop culture. In other words, they create educational materials that “mirror” the experiences of Black communities by incorporating meaningful cultural elements. Their area of expertise is developing educational resources that skillfully combine Black history with modern popular culture, such as TV and movies. They provide extra resources for studying movies and television shows in addition to creating a curriculum for K–12 education. In order to serve as a “mirror” for students to see themselves portrayed, the Langston League seeks to produce instructional materials and provide a unique educational foundation that represents the experiences of Black communities.
According to their research, evidence shows that 1 in 3 (33%) Black women lawyers say Maxine Shaw directly influenced their decision to go to law school, while two-thirds of Black women say that she showed them that they could have a successful career and a fulfilling personal life. 8 in 10 Black women professionals (79%) say that Maxine inspired them to be leaders in a male-dominated profession, and an undeniable 90% say that she inspired them to be confident and unafraid to speak their minds. The research doesn’t just discuss the findings, but it also lays out a plan and detailed steps towards awareness, accountability, and action. The ultimate goal of the Maxine Shaw Effect research project is to bring attention to how representation in media can inspire a viewer socially and influence one’s life choices while also raising awareness of the lack of Black women in professional legal spaces. Through conversations and community, one of the goals of the project is to connect Black women across all career paths and create sustainable practices of engagement. As a result of the research, another priority is to curate a national program that amplifies the importance of the mental health of Black women in legal positions from the classroom to the courtroom and the microaggressions they have to juggle in white male-dominated careers. One of the biggest pieces of the action plan presented by the Maxine Shaw Effect team is the implementation of platforms that will help to catapult systemic change and continue to invest in diversity and inclusion practices, specifically through the development of a curriculum designed to inspire Black girls to pursue futures in leadership positions whether in law, politics, or other corporate careers, while also highlighting similarities in media representation. What’s different about the Maxine Shaw Effect is that there have been many studies conducted that measure the disparities within media representation, but this is the only one that actually researches the impact.
Maxine Shaw is the very first television character EVER with a full educational curriculum built off of their influence. The curriculum is based on leadership, integrity, communication skills, research, debate, case presentation, and how to be a powerhouse in and outside of the courtroom. All Maxine Shaw educational resources were released on the Microsoft Platform in September 2024 and many are in the process of being implemented into selected university programs across the country.
In the words of THEE Erika Alexander, “Our success, and the success of thousands of other women like us, is proof that representation matters and the reverberations of creating characters like Maxine Shaw would continue to change our world, tell a bigger story, and become all of our wildest dreams.”
