Alison Herman TV Critic Every generation gets the aspirational workplace it deserves. In 2006, “The Devil Wears Prada” helped establish the archetype of an imperious, intimidating woman who rules her chic urban office with an iron fist; with its obvious Anna Wintour analog, the book-turned-film also doubled as a bookend to the era of the print magazine editor’s omnipotence. Eight years later, Sophia Amoruso coined the term “Girlboss,” a cutesy moniker that soon got a Netflix adaptation to match. Latter-day examples have updated the template to keep pace with the times: “Younger” took place in the wake of the Great Recession, when securing a dream job requires some deceit, while “The Bold Type” was proudly progressive — think 2010s Cosmo, not mid-aughts Vogue. In these stories, actual employment is less secure, but the employer acts less like a dictator than a stern, if nurturing, mentor.
