Part of the reason I enjoy the series Mad Men is the show’s commitment to creating an accurate picture of
the 1960s. The writers tie
historical events into the show’s plot well, and as the series has continued
from 1960 through 1964, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy assassination,
the Civil Rights Movement and even Marilyn Monroe’s death have been in the
background (and sometimes forefront) of episodes. One of the best parts of this is that it gives the viewer an
opportunity to see how people in that time reacted to the major changes
happening across the country. In
particular, women slowly gained access to new opportunities. The show explores these through the
women of Mad Men, particularly Joan Holloway, Peggy Olson and Betty Draper,
demonstrate the different ways women reacted to these changes.
The writers have done a good job of exploring the changing
role of women in the 1960s. Though
many of the secretaries seem to exist only so that Don Draper can sleep with
them, the three main female characters are more representative of the complex
choices women had at the time.
While the women’s movement had started to garner national attention after
WWII, especially after the publication of The
Feminine Mystique by Betty Freidan in 1963, the 1960s were a transition
between an era when women were expected to get married and start a family by
age twenty-two and an era where women had a greater range of choices. Betty, Joan, and Peggy embody those
choices and the challenges that came with them.
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| I'm kind of glad that plaid wallpaper stayed in the 1960s. |
At the beginning of the series, Betty Draper is a suburban
housewife who seems to suffer from “the problem that has no name” that Freidan
discusses in her book. Betty is
unhappy but can’t explain why, so Don gets her into psychotherapy for her
“nervous condition.” She
eventually quits, deciding that therapy was entirely unhelpful. Before she married Don, Betty had been
a model, and for one episode she briefly begins modeling again. This upsets Don, who would rather have
her stay at home. He never gives a
reason why she should be at home for the kids – they do have a full-time nanny
– but it is clear that to him, Betty should not work because that is just how
things are done. She enjoys the
money she earns modeling, but mostly she seems to enjoy being out of the house
and having people admire her beauty.
Unfortunately her modeling gig is just a move by a rival advertising
firm to lure Don away from Sterling Cooper. When he refuses to change companies, Betty loses her job as
the new face of Coca-Cola. She is
visibly upset, but decides to act as if she just missed being at home for the
children. Don assures her that her
job is to be the best mother that she can be. However, Betty’s desire to go back to modeling demonstrates
that perhaps her “nervous condition” comes from feeling lost by staying at
home.
In this way, Betty is the housewife of the 1950s and
earlier. Her place is the domestic
sphere, and Don is uncomfortable when she leaves it. After the attempt to return to modeling, Betty rarely strays
from being a housewife. She bucks
tradition in her decision to divorce Don, but she only does so after she has
secured a marriage proposal from Henry Francis, a well-off politician. Betty’s character is too complicated by
her circumstances to be truly indicative of a wide variety of women in the
1960s – she struggles with losing her parents and Don’s infidelity, and by the
fourth season has turned into a truly childish, selfish person – but her experiences
do reflect those of a certain type of woman from the early 1960s. She married at a young age and
generally accepts her place in the home raising her children. While the expanding role of women does
have an impact on her, especially in terms of her divorce, she remains a
relatively traditional woman.
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| Every scene that Joan is in explains why Banana Republic launched a Mad Men-inspired line of clothing. |
Joan Holloway is one of the strongest women on the
show. She is the office manager at
Sterling Cooper, organizing the administrative aspects of the office and
welcoming clients. As a single
woman, she is not ashamed of sex and is always faithful to the person she is seeing
at the time. While she is
comfortable being a mistress, she also wants a more traditional marriage and
household. Joan embraces parts of
the “new woman” of the 1960s, such as being open about her sexuality and having
a job, but she also accepts certain traditions when she gets engaged and
marries a man with more conservative ideas. Her husband, Greg Harris, insists that she quit her job when
they get married, though when he doesn’t become chief surgical resident, Joan
has to return to work so they can make ends meet. It is obvious Joan loves her work; she is great at working
with people and is never intimidated by the men in the office. For a brief time when the Television
Department is just starting up (and is just one guy), the department head Harry
Crane asks Joan to read television scripts in order to determine which episodes
could pair well with which products’ commercials. Not only does she love the job, but because she is familiar with
the soap operas’ characters she can make more informed suggestions than Harry. However, once Harry’s budget increases,
he hires a man for Joan’s job. She
is disappointed, but accepts it – that’s just the way advertising agencies are. Women are the secretaries and
switchboard operators. They aren’t
the executives.
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| Working hard and taking names. |
And that’s where Peggy fits in. Peggy Olson starts off as Don Draper’s secretary. After a focus group session with all
the secretaries to test a new line of lipstick, Peggy’s comment about “a basket
of kisses” catches the attention of one of the copywriters. Peggy earns the chance to write copy
for the account, and quickly begins acquiring more and more copywriting
duties. By the end of the third
season, she has gotten her own office and her own secretary. Peggy represents the new career woman,
trying to find her way through a male-dominated industry. She gets frustrated when the male
copywriters swap ideas out at the bar together without inviting her; she makes
enemies in the office when the other women think her new job has made her
arrogant. Her family doesn’t
understand why she wants to work in the city rather than settling down with a
family in Brooklyn. Her boyfriends
don’t understand why she is willing to work late every night. She experiments with her sexuality with
unexpected results, and finds men who assume she’s a virgin and others who
expect that she isn’t one. Throughout the first four seasons, Peggy grows as a person as
her career grows. As she gains
confidence in her copywriting, she gains confidence in her relationships. She becomes more willing to ask for
what she wants and draw boundaries where she needs them. However, she still struggles to find
her place. At one point, she asks
to be put on a major new account, and Don yells at her to stop asking for
things and earn them instead. Though she works hard on her accounts to move up, nearly
everyone in the office assumes that she got her position by sleeping with Don.
Joan, Betty and Peggy show the different challenges that women faced in the 1960s, no matter how traditional or modern they were. There were new avenues towards some sort of liberation, but the traditional route was still the most socially acceptable. Women hadn't reached a stage where it was easy or even possible to have a family and a career; no matter what direction they chose, they ran into problems. The writers do an effective job of communicating these challenges. Though many of the women on Mad Men are there to be eye candy, these three allow the viewer to understand and appreciate where women were in society in the 1960s and how much has or has not changed since then.
What do you think of the women on Mad Men?
What do you think of the show's portrayal of the 1960s?
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