Erica Scharrer, 2017 PEP Fellow, quoted in Thrive Global article about depictions of fatherhood in the media. She says fathers on television are shown as, " as bumbling, ineffectual and immature, almost like a child rather than a parental figure." The article then cites her 2010 study, “Wise to Foolish: The Portrayal of the Sitcom Father, 1950s to 1990s,” which shows how depictions of fathers went from distant but kindly authority figures to the inept buffoons who were often the butt of family jokes; a shift she argues is concurrent with changes in women's economic position in and outside the home.