Joan And Peggy Character Analysis

Joan, though seemingly a bit more aggressive than Peggy at first, has to deal with her personal appearance, which immediately has most of the men pegging her as stupid, and getting stereotyped as just another pretty face. Joan also though (probably because she is more accustomed to it) seems to do a better job at dealing with her femininity than Peggy. She seems more self aware, even telling Peggy in the first episode that "if you make the right moves then you’ll live in the country-side and won’t have to work” (Episode 1). Peggy doesn’t get this though, because she isn’t aspiring to be a wife who stays at home and is looked after by a man. This comment though illustrates the ‘traditional’ roles being portrayed in the series, as women could only escape the female ridden “clerical” desk work by finding a man. Peggy though does get a dose of Joan’s protection over her distinction as being very attractive (despite Joan’s struggle to overcome it) when she tells Peggy she is “not much” in the area of attractiveness (Episode 1). In the fifth episode, Peggy seeks advice from Joan regarding what to tell Betty when she finds out that Don is seeing another woman, and Joan responds by

The accurate portrayal of sexism and sexual harassment brought back these scarring memories so vividly that it resulted in many simply not watching the show (Coontz). Despite the lack of actual audience participation, each week everyone participated because of the fact that it was a historical show. Most members of the audience know what major events will unfold, such as the women’s liberation movement. For whoever wasn’t born in that time, this show serves as a compilation of many extreme examples of what happened in the