4. Feminism
These days, in a lot of countries, women have equal opportunity to men to pursue their careers and goals, with less pressure to perform to a certain gender role or career path. Things weren't always this way, and in the 1960s women were still expected to fulfil certain positions around an office, which is where Mad Men begins. Peggy Olson joins Sterling Cooper as a secretary and receives the less-than polite advances of several of the creative and sales collective, including the wonderfully smug, smarmy Pete Campbell. Joan Holloway is the femme fatale office manager, but despite her authoritative manner she holds rather a token position compared to the men of the office. However this changes, and we see these strong women challenging the status quo of the 1960s, showing they were just as strong as their male counterparts opportunity is there for these women to take control of their lives and shake off the conventional roles expected of them. The pill gave sexual freedom to women and as feminism took hold, they were able to pursue roles normally dominated by men, breaking down social barriers and challenging their role in the home and workplace. Peggy, through sheer determination and skill gets herself into creative as a copywriter, where she shows as much drive and more natural skill then her male rivals. Ruthlessly pursuing her career and respected by her peers, she is instrumental in saving the floundering SCDP following the loss of Lucky Strike, then moves to rival agency CGC to further herself. When the two companies merge and Draper is forced to take leave, she finds herself as de facto creative director aged just 29. Joan Holloway works her way to success in different ways, but they are all woman. Oozing sexuality, the sassy office manager is not to be crossed, with her beauty matched by her sharp tongue that has sent many scurrying away. Adopting a rather conventional role at first by marrying and then having a baby, putting her career aside in the process, she soon returns to the office with renewed vigour. Balancing her work and home life, she takes a stronger role in the developing new agency, becoming Director of Agency Operations, and then taking a 5% partnership in the company. How she achieves that partnership may not be the same way that Peggy achieved success, but there was no denying it was something no man could have done.