In a previous study which analyzed the content of a sample of 1972 primetime television programming, Manes and Melnyk (1974) concluded that television portrayed employment and marriage as incompatible life‐styles for women. The present study applied the same content analysis procedures to a sample of 1978 prime‐time television programming. Results indicated that female characters employed outside the home were significantly less likely to be married than were employed male characters (p<.001), a finding which replicated the result obtained previously. In contrast to the 1972 results, however, analyses of the 1978 data revealed that employed married women were not significantly less likely than either their male counterparts or unemployed housewives to be depicted as successfully marr