Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

One of my favorite new shows is Mad Men, set in an ad agency in the early ’60s, when men were men and women were - well - “girls.” Everybody smokes like fiends and drinks like fish (including the expectant mothers). And, the kids are in the backyard, unsupervised (the parents are in the kitchen puffing and swilling), shooting bb guns and wearing plastic dry cleaning bags over their heads. I’m certainly not nostalgic for working or social conditions then (besides, I was like 4, out in the backyard playing with sharp objects and eating mud pies), but it’s a fascinating look back.

I started working in the late 70s, when we still had two sets of “help wanted” ads: one for women and one for men. I was routinely asked during interviews if I planned to get married or have children, and it was generally assumed (and sometimes still actual company policy) that women would leave the company when (not if) they got pregnant. And, all applications for women included questions about shorthand and typing speeds (even if you weren’t applying for a secretarial position.) One particularly memorable application had a section on health, with a long list of “check the box” if you had any - um - “female problems” (yes, they named them, line after line after line) Whoaaaaa….I left, leaving behind a blank app.

So, yes, we’ve still got a lot of things to fix. Both sexism and racism are alive and well, but we have made some progress. At least nobody expects me to wear a girdle.

Read More: Caroline Wexler and her piece, Mad About Mad Men. Some interesting perspective, including her mother’s life as a Jewish attorney on Wall Street in the 1950s. (Her boss actually called her his “little Jewish worker.”)

(Side note to my fellow Buffyverse geeks fans: One of the Mad Men is “Connor” from the old Angel series. Our little crazed killer is all growed up and wearing a tie. Sniffle.)

Lastly - and totally unrelated - if you’ve stayed with me this long…some good news re the environment. (Most of the news makes me want to start puffin’ and swillin’ - I mean, it’s hopeless anyway, right?) Via Wired:

WASHINGTON (AP) — For a change, there’s some good news from the world of the environment. Several rare and vulnerable birds are rebounding in Europe. Conservation efforts in Peru are reducing damage to the Amazon rain forest. And black-footed ferrets are making a comeback in Wyoming.

So, there ya go - a positive note to kick off your weekend.

Tags: Mad Men, sexism, Mary Schmidt