The 17 Most Powerful Female Characters In Television

Jeanie Boulet

The TV show ER was always well-respected for depicting the personal struggles of its characters – including women – in balancing demanding careers with personal lives. The character of Physician Assistant Jeanie Boulet, played brilliantly by Gloria Reuben, was an outstanding example of this dramatic practice, and remains one of the greatest female portrayals in its 15-season, 331 episode history.

Arriving halfway through season one, in 1995, Jeanie Boulet was seen to be in an unhappy marriage, as she was hired to help care for the ailing mother of Dr. Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle). From 1995 to 1999, Boulet engaged in an affair with Benton and – coincidentally – got a job at the E.R, where the nursing staff perceived her as a threat and she was forced to constantly justify her presence. Her marriage deteriorated, her husband unknowingly infected her with HIV, and she battled to keep her health status secret. When it was finally revealed, she battled against workplace prejudice.

Eventually, she re-married, adopted a baby with HIV, and left the E.R to focus on her family. In 2008, her character returned for an episode as her adopted son was treated for a head injury. The revisiting of Jeanie Boulet confirmed that she remains one of the only characters from American television to have contracted HIV and not been killed off – instead navigating how to live with it on a daily basis.

Dana Scully

Special Agent Dana Scully, as played by Gillian Anderson in The X Files, was a cornerstone of American television for a decade, and remains a character with iconic status. A qualified medical doctor, she was assigned to ‘de-bunk’ the work of Special Agent Fox Mulder, whose investigations of the shadowy X Files threatened powerful men. She quickly comes to understand the gravity of the situation that working on these unusual cases places the partners in – proving herself to be the perfect foil to Mulder’s obsessive approach, and bringing her characteristic scepticism and logic to every unexplained occurrence.

The real strength of the character, however, lay in her complexity. Her inner-life was under constant review, as she reassessed her beliefs, education and perception with every challenge. While her seemingly ‘open-minded’ partner was arguably inflexible, Scully accommodated developments and grounded the entire proceeding in a warm, intelligent reality. She mourned family members, endured abduction, battled cancer, confronted infertility, and was physically and emotionally brutalized several times over. She still showed up for work, regardless, ready to ride into battle with Mulder – propping him up with her unshakeable loyalty.