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Working Girls

One of the things that remains to be true for most women inthe United States is that there is gender inequality in the workplace. Back in the sixties, women were told to stay at home and clean up after the kids. If they had a job, they were usually "pink collar" jobs such as the job of a secretary or nurse, and there was very little room to advance, if there was any room or advancement at all. Also, it was mostly the young, single women who did these types of jobs, expected to eventually move on once they found a husband which is what does happen in the instance of some of the secretaries of SCDP (Stern 2012). Joan Holloway, and Peggy Olson are two of the best examples of working women who had much difficulty gaining respect in the offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Price.

To do a quick recap, Joan is the Office Manger at SCDP. She hires all the secretaries, and know everything about everyone who works there. It is not until later in the show's run that we see Joan obtaining a position as a partner of the firm due to a controversial decision I will mention in a but. Peggy Olsen started out as Don's secretary, graduation from a secretarial school. She also eventually advances within SCDP in a more conventional way than Joan. Both of these women experience their own share of inequality and/or harassment within the workplace, and they also had their own way of getting to the top.

In the workplace, women are expected to be passive, cooperative, emotional, and caring whereas men are rewarded for their initiative, competitive spirit, and rational-logical decision making (Jones 2014). In addition, it is the masculine characteristics that are appreciated in the office, where as if a woman ever got too emotional at work, she would be scolded. There are a number of contradictions that arise with this issue, because if a woman is too much of one or the other, she is in the wrong, and oftentimes she is unable to find that "happy medium". With this being said, gender norms influence how work should be getting done. Even if a man and woman have the same position, gender norms insist that they must do the work differently (Jones 2014). How is a woman supposed to succeed if too much of one thing isn't enough as the other; it just doesn't make sense. We see this evident with two of the characters we will discuss, Peggy and Joan.

Firstly, let's discuss Joan Holloway. Joan is an independent woman trying to raise a newborn on her own. At the beginning of the show, we see he sleeping around with one of the partners, Roger Sterling, and constantly getting looks from the other males in the office. Upon first meeting Peggy, she tells her that she needs to spend MORE time on her appearance, and take advantage of the male attention. For Joan, this is how she succeeds. She embraces her curves, and flaunts what she's got, because she knows the men like it. As far as her partnership goes, well that's an interesting story.

The account men at SCDP have the opportunity to gain a HUGE account that will help their firm grow immensely. However, there's just one catch. In order for the CEO of Jaguar to consider their business, he must spend the night with Joan. Now this is a huge deal, and it's a whole new level of business. Don goes to Joan's house and discourages her from going through with it because for some reason, the womanizer doesn't think it's right for Joan to sleep around for the sake of business.

However, unbeknownst to him, we find out that the act is already done. She sleeps with him, and she is able to become a partner at the firm. This is an example of Joan breaking those patriarchal norms and just doing something for the sake of her wanting to do it. Anyways, the promotion is interesting, because even though she does sleep with the guy and she does get partner, there's not a visual promotion. For example, when Pete or one of the other account men at SCDP get an account or a promotion, there's always a party with some drinks not too far ahead. However, with Joan, it was kind of swept under the table. The only people who knew about what she did were the people on the account. Good or bad, she didn't get the recognition she should've because what she did wasn't conventional in most ways. This doesn't phase Joan, as she's just set her young child and herself up for life, which is all Joan really wanted anyways.

With Joan embracing her femininity to get what she wants, Peggy, on the other hand, does just the

opposite. Although we do see Joan encouraging Peggy to be more feminine upon entering the working world, we come to see that although she does try this, it's not for her. Peggy achieves her work goals by appealing to the male aspect of success, and asserting herself in a more "masculine" way (Goodlad 2013). Starting out with a more girlish style than womanly, Peggy had a rough start. When trying to appeal to Don's affections, she was denied, and ultimately embarrassed. Shortly after this when she becomes copy editor, we see Peggy gradually becoming more familiar with her position, and her style begins to change. As she is moving away from her girlishness however, there is equal pressure on her to be "both feminine and more masculine" (Goodlad p. 176). How can one girl do both? Well, Peggy finds out a way.

Fashion aside, Peggy slowly begins appealing to the male aspect of the workplace. She goes to Don and demands a raise for her work, and then she eventually fires an actress. Although she does end up leaving SCDP for lack of compensation, he promotion at the other firm is a continued portrayal of sexual politics by not being invited to meetings, or not even being invited to outing that the men usually go on. She even makes a comment about this not understanding why all "after work" social activities have to be a a male-focused place like a strip club or bar. Throughout the series we see Peggy struggling to get the respect she is due, and a lot of this problem comes from Don alone. You can see this appeal to male tendencies in her fashion choices as well, as she goes for a dress that isn't as fitting as Joan or even Betty might wear, but instead she dresses modestly, with a loose skirt as well as some sort of tie in the front, possibly alluding to the attire of men with their suits and tie. Another difference with Peggy is that her priorities in her job overcame everything else. Throughout the show Peggy priorities her achievements over any kind of domestic lifestyle, ultimately rejecting the birth of an illegitimate son and her Catholic faith.

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