“Children set the table. Your mother needs a moment for herself,” is the signature sign-off of Elizabeth Zott on her Julia Child-esque television program, “Supper at Six.”
Enter Elizabeth Zott, a woman with a master’s in chemistry fighting to research abiogenesis but unable to because she is only a lab tech and never received her Ph.D. Despite the setbacks, including a violent sexual assault, Elizabeth is determined to be a scientist and continue her research, even if it involves stealing supplies from other well-funded labs, like that of the brilliant Calvin Evans .
This is best evidenced in her job at Hastings laboratories and her romance with famous scientist Evans. In the book, Zott is a chemist pursuing her own research, but in the show, she is a lab tech with even less power and fewer resources. Within the first 15 minutes of Episode 1, Zott encounters every sexist cliché you can imagine in a 1950s workplace: She’s called “honey” or “sweetheart,” asked to make coffee, told to smile, and mistaken for a secretary by Evans.