In episode 1x03, we venture out into the suburbs, or what most Mad Men characters refer to as "the country." The atmosphere is different than the city, with more emphasis on P's & Q's and proper child-rearing, and in this episode we see how the gender dynamics play out differently than in the workplace. Whereas the women at Sterling Cooper are cast in fast-moving, subservient roles in which they're almost invisible in terms of professionalism, the women "in the country" live in a quiet, pristine, submissive world. The scene takes place at the Drapers' child's birthday party, where many of the couple's adult friends attend. One of the men (ignoring his wife to ask him not to) cracks a joke: "Your wife and your lawyer are drowning. You've got a choice to make: do you go to lunch or a movie?" The men laugh - and the women say nothing, look down, feel awkward as hell. It's a brazen display of the patriarchy that exists in the 'burbs: the women are homemakers, existing for their husbands and their children, and they don't exist in a role that makes it easy for them to speak up and demand respect, even if it's as minute as a tactless joke. The expectation here is that they shouldn't take it seriously - that humor is for the men, anyway, to be enjoyed in subconscious male prowess, with chuckling wives by their sides.