There are a million things on the television series Mad Men that capture my attention. What interests me most, however, is how they portray the roles women were shoehorned into during the early 1960s. It is funny how a woman was expected to be EITHER a housewife OR a career girl. There was nothing in between. The series' writers borrow heavily from Helen Gurley-Brown's Sex and the Single Girl and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique to depict their female characters. Delightfully, without a play book or expose for reference, they also represent women who BROKE the mold and cut their own path (and eventually went on to spark a movement).
The three main female characters/archetypes of the series are: Joan Holloway, an office manager who personifies Sex and the Single Girl. Betty Draper a model-turned-housewife who is unraveling slowly ala The Feminine Mystique. And finally, copywriter Peggy Olson (by far my favorite character) who is best summed up by this video:
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