Working with "Mad Men"

The popular AMC show “Mad Men” shows some very, very intense examples of sexism. From the opening credits, a man falling through advertisements of women’s legs, through the show’s overtones of male dominance in the office, “Mad Men” truly embodies the sexist tension found in the 1960s. I only watched one episode and found enough material to fill a small journal with, let alone a required blog post. I’m ready for this!

We are able to make sense of the context by understanding the time in which it was created.  “In the 1960’s deep cultural changes were altering the role of women in American society. More females than ever were entering the paid workforce, and this increased the dissatisfaction among women regarding huge gender disparities in pay and advancement and sexual harassment at the work place,” (Walsh, 2010). “Mad Men” show the gradual change from the men’s world, to an equally gender balanced work environment. As much as people had high hopes for this, was it actually happening? In a scene we see a young woman enter a building’s elevator. A few men stand behind the young girl. Only a few seconds in the elevator, a man comments on how he is enjoying the view. Was sexual harassment still present or does “Mad Men” have it wrong?

Women aren’t only harassed sexually in “Mad Men”. Later in the episode we meet a female doctor. She meets with Don and another advertising executive to tell them about the psychological results of an advertisement. Don calls her Ms. Gutman. She is quick to correct him, by saying “DOCTOR Gutman”. “Mad Men” seems to accurately depict the movement of women’s liberation. Doctor Gutman, a female in a medical position, has entered the higher paying work force. Don and company are flabbergasted at their encounter with a woman doctor, who likely makes more than them even with reduced rates for women workers. They treat her with no respect and later slander her. Obviously, the ideologies of gender roles were flipped upside down. These facts are a bit horrifying to the men, and I hope that today such disrespect wouldn’t happen.

“Men go to work, drink too much, seduce their secretaries; women stay home with their children or abandon femininity by trying to break into the male-dominated business world.” (Slochower, 2011). This one sentence is able to sum up the entire show. Throughout the entire episode we see advertising executives drinking in the middle of the day.  The new secretary is harassed multiple times by her male co-workers.  Pete Campbell, an advertising executive goes so far to tell the secretary to show more of her legs and to pull her waist in. Betty, Don’s wife stays at home taking care of their two children, while he is sleeping with a woman in the city. On a positive note, Peggy Olson is breaking through the male dominated work place. She awkwardly stumbles her way into the good graces of her boss and his colleagues. Maybe not by all of the purest means, but she makes it.

In the 1960’s women were making sixty percent of what men were making. What does this say about gender equality in the work place? We don’t need an analyst to answer that question; things weren’t equal. Those numbers were true over fifty years ago. What progress have we made today? According to Forbes, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012 women earned 80.9% of the salaries made from their male counterparts. So again I ask, what does this say about gender equality in the work place? After over fifty years, things are STILL NOT EQUAL. Is “Mad Men’s” representation of gender inequality and sexism not as far off as most of us think? I would hope things are not as bad and unequal as “Mad Men”, but I’m lead to believe that not much progress has actually happened. Surely companies’ human resources departments are doing something. Everyone loves that sexual harassment training. But can we know for sure people’s ideologies of gender roles have changed? We won’t know for sure, but maybe “Mad Men’s” depiction of sexism and unequal gender roles, help people to realize how ridiculous and unfair they are. We all wait in anticipation for when the boy’s club is finally shut down. Hopefully it doesn’t take another fifty years for equal pay and rights within a work place.

“Mad Men” presents, no, is saturated with sexist content. The representation is completely implied to help the show better capture the attitude of the 1960’s and these “mad men” of New York City. We may laugh at the obviousness of the content and think to ourselves, “Good thing it’s not like that today!” but how far away are we from Don Draper’s world of male dominance, affairs, and scotch on the job? We can’t ignore that these issues, though not as obvious in the workforce still do exist. How can we learn from “Mad Men” to improve the equality of the workplace?

Works Cited

Casserly, Meghan. "The Gender Pay Gap Got Worse, Not Better, In 2012--And It's Great For Women." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 14 Feb. 2013. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.

Slochower, Joyce. "Gender, Splitting and Non-Recognition in Mad Men." American Journal of Psychoanalysis. Palgrave Macmillian, 2011. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.

Walsh, Kenneth T. "The 1960s: A Decade of Change for Women." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 12 Mar. 2010. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.