A Lesson to Learn from Peggy Olson

**SPOILER ALERT: If you, like me, did not watch this week's Mad Men episode, do not read this post**

Okay, now that that's settled...Dan and I haven't watched this episode yet and, while I did not set out to spoil it for myself, this article, which I found on Huff Post Women, seemed to good to pass up.  I re-watched Miss Representation last night with two dear friends (click here for my original post on the movie) and it inspired a really thought-provoking discussion.

One of the main points that the film makes is that women, because we are beaten down by the media, which constantly tells us that we are just not adequate enough to be the "ideal woman," do not seek leadership positions in government, business, and entertainment.  As we were discussing the movie afterward, we all had the same underlying concern: none of the three of us wants to be a CEO of a major multinational corporation or the first female president.  We don't feel that way because the media has beaten our self-esteem to a pulp (although we're not denying that it can have that effect); we simply do not aspire to positions like that.  After watching the movie, we felt as though the expectation was that we burn our bras, throw away our makeup and march to The Hill to begin our political careers in earnest.  Is there something wrong with us for not wanting that for ourselves?

However, in reading the article above, I extracted some pearls of wisdom that I found to be helpful in answering this question.  No, we do not need to aspire to those top positions, but we DO need to understand what our market value is, and we DO owe it to ourselves to demand the compensation that we deserve, which directly correlates to our market value.  The article points out (and I would completely agree with this) that men have an inflated sense of self, and will always try to negotiate more money for themselves, while women, having neither a knowledge of what they are worth nor a desire to rock the boat with new colleagues by demanding more money and appearing "demanding" or "bitchy" from the outset, do not negotiate in the same way that men do.  How does this tie back to Mad Men?  Well, Peggy, after years of mistreatment (getting passed over by male colleagues, some of them less talented, on accounts, and having these same men take credit for the work that IS rightly hers), sees the delight and decides to jump ship from Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Price.  Again, I have not watched this episode yet, but I imagine that I will be cheering.  However, the problem is that, after having been beaten down by her male colleagues for years and being subtly reminded of her second-class citizenship based solely on her gender, has no earthly idea how much she is worth and, thus, goes into the job search unprepared.

The author suggests that the best way for women to educate ourselves is to research what women in comparable positions are earning so that we can go into job interviews with a solid number in mind, as well as a number of reasons as to why we are worthy of that amount of compensation (because we still, in this day and age, have to justify that to some people).  Be your own advocate, ladies!!!

Oh Mad Men...despite the fact that its characters sometimes make me want to rip my hair out (Dan and I both agree that, if a character were to be killed off sometime this season, we would want it to be either Pete Campbell, a truly despicable and miserly creature, or Betty, who, for all intents and purposes, is still a five year-old child) and the dialogue exhibits such blatant misogynism, racism and classism, I can't help but be glued to the television screen.  I am very intrigued by Megan, who, other than Peggy, is the strongest recurring female character on the show, so I continue to watch, despite Pete's philandering and incessant self-pitying whining and Betty's childish behavior.