Tami Taylor: Helpmate and Feminist

In the opening episode of Friday Night Lights, the viewer learns a little bit about Tami Taylor when she declares, "His and her closets, baby" during the Taylor's house shopping. Tami may seem to easily fit the helpmate norms of a coach's wife within the show. The helpmate character has historically provided private support for the "man of the house" and raises the children; it most often has been a wife who aids and helps the husband so that he can execute his job. In planning and executing team parties at the Taylor home, being sounding board for Eric and their daughter, Julie, and being the guidance counselor at Dillon High School, Tami exemplifies the helpmate character. In this regard, Tami provides emotional and rational guidance to Eric and the students of Dillon High. She takes care of the private sphere of the home, even when Eric temporarily leaves in Season 2 for a college job in Austin. In being an aide or helper to a male, the character of Tami Taylor continues a limited role for women in the public sphere. Tami does not get the same glory that Coach Taylor receives in winning a game when she helps a student stay academically eligible or deal with emotional troubles. Instead, she becomes embroiled in controversy when she counsels a teen about adoption and abortion options during Season 4. As an aide, Tami fits within feminine stereotypes and limits women's decisions to the emotional rather than rational. In this way, the Tami character on FNL continues a gender dichotomy where the woman's job is deemed less important than the man's. But this ideology of a coach's wife blindly following the coach is challenged in Season 5.

During Season 5, the family's decision to move from town to town to advance Eric's career becomes a divisive issue. Coach Taylor is once again recruited by a college and the town again tries to convince him to stay. While Eric decides his heart is in Dillon and with his team during the "Don't Go" episode, Eric's job is not assured because of budget cuts and the potential of there being only one football team in Dillon next year. In "The March" episode, though, Tami blossoms. She interviews for an admissions position at a Philadelphia university. During the episode, Tami is offered the Director of Admissions position, which Eric does not respond positively too because he coaches football in Texas. Tami's response to the unsettling and lack of congratulations: "I don't see why we can't just look at something beyond football." The viewers finally learn of Tami's own discontent and career aspirations in the last few episodes of the show. Tami's own desires, though, are stressful and tension filled for the couple. While Eric is offered the job to remain Dillon's football coach, the family must decide whose job offer should come first. In the series finale, "Always," Tami has a few choice words for her husband: "It's my turn babe. I have loved you and you have loved me and we have compromised, both of us...for your job. And now it's time to talk about doing that for my job." The viewer realizes the compromise has always been for Eric, not Tami. Her interests were secondary in relation to his rise to head coach. The dagger for Eric, though, was when Tami stated: "Don't forget that the people who are offering you this job are the same people who fired you for no reason 2 years ago." As the voice of reason, not emotion which Eric is displaying, Tami fires the last salvo in their fight over jobs. Tami does become the Director of Admissions at Braemor College and the Taylors move to Philly. Tami's job offer came first and she leads the family into a new direction. In this regard, the helpmate character becomes refined and more liberating for women. Tami still is the motherly figure, but she comes first rather than football. In this way, the ending of the show and Tami challenge who's job is more important and the role of wife as more than just helper.