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.
