Rachael Simpson

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Women at work

Just caught the end of Stepford Wives and it got me thinking about how womens roles have changed in the last 40 years. Well I think about it quite often but specifically women and their careers. Stepford Wives came out in 1972, a time when feminism was beginning to explode and a time unlike any before in terms of women and their careers.

During the second world war many women took up posts to provide support for the war effort. They took over the jobs the men could no longer do as they were off fighting. After the war, women didn’t want to go home, they didn’t want to give up working, they gained some respect from their years of service but its taken a long time for us to make our way into the work force on equal terms.

Pay is still not equal however, women still earn less than men. An interesting article on Americas history is here.

mad men women

A show I particularly love is Mad Men (set in the 60’s at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising company) and I really enjoy the way women are represented and the casual sexism of the time period which is neither overdone nor ignored, it fits the reality.

Betty Draper

One of the three main female characters we see is the blonde bombshell wife of Ad Executive John Draper, Betty, who over time unravels from her perfect housewife persona due to a realisation of her husbands infidelities and trying to suppress frustration about her modeling career being replaced by marriage. Betty is bored, but generally always looks fantastic and maintains her duty to her family.

Joan Holloway

Flame haired sex bomb of the Ad office is Joan Holloway, head of the secretaries, comfortable in her own sexuality and happy to use it to get on with her life. For many years she enjoys her independence. She is ridiculed by the rest of the typing pool when they realise she’s over 30 and still working. Given the opportunity to cover some TV research work she shines but is quickly replaced when a suitable man is found. Joan doesn’t fight for her corner, though hurt by this oblivious rejection, this is just the way men act towards women and she simply accepts it. Joan later becomes engaged to an abusive doctor although she pretends to be content and desire a housewifely life, she also shows signs of wanting a career and continuing her independent life but doesn’t see it as a viable option in the long run.

Peggy Olson

Perhaps one of the most interesting characters is Peggy Olson, a young woman hired as a secretary, she quickly during the series moves up through the ranks and eventually becomes junior copywriter, sharing an office with the photocopier. In her personal life she faces many challenges but the way she deals with them is not traditional of a female stereotype, she refuses to admit wrong doing on her part even under pressure from the church, while at the same time maintaining a quiet, calm and moral behaviour at work, unhappy to use someone else weaknesses against them, she wants to win on her own merit.

The show is a fascinating watch and the male characters just as engaging in their stories.

Woman today should be on a level playing field, and should be judged equally along side men, who ever best for the job, it should be a fair fight between us both. We should be well beyond affirmative action. Individuals should be valued for their skills and unique abilities, but at the same time, you’re always going to laugh or make jokes at the group which is similar but different from you so I wouldn’t expect jokes about men and women to go away, I just would hope that when people make them, they realise it IS a joke. PC behaviour doesn’t solve problems, it just masks them. Education is the real cure.

So often recently I read stories with research into ‘working mother syndrome’ where children suffer because their mothers have careers. Fathers are excluded from these studies, no-one seems to worry about the absence of a male role model – which is surprising given the amount of male emasculation happening within advertising and current lack of strong male role models in the public domain, perhaps another blog on that! Male parenting is just as vital. With the recession, mothers who have taken a career break to raise young children are finding it harder and hard to get back into work. If a woman has the luxury of choosing whether to work or stay at home then I think either decision should be supported.

I personally subscribe to the theory that it takes a village to raise a child so finding a balance between yourself, your partner (or simply the other parent), friends and extended family is what needs to happen.

While woman have remarkable talents you can’t be mother, lover, cook and career girl all at the same time, you need to be yourself first and foremost. Pressure on women is enormous if you look at magazines, I’m 26 and according to cosmo, by the time I’m 30 I should be married, have a mortgage, a career promotion or two, have run a marathon and also maybe have a kid on the way – not a bad plan by any stretch, but should I feel like a failure if I’m don’t do it that way?

Life is not by numbers, things will happen as they happen – Christine’s story about older engagements is proof of that!

The only person a woman should answer to is herself, life is to be lived, suffered and enjoyed.