I decided for this post that i’d watch one of my favorite series, Mad men. Mad men takes place during the 60’s and highlights the social upheaval for both men and women at the time. One of the characters that really stuck out to me in this series was Joan, she started off as a office manager and initially believed that she wanted to find a husband and quit her job so that she could be a “respectable” housewife. Of course many women at the time were expected to do so. In fact in the 60’s people assumed that the only reason a women would work is if they failed to find a man to support them. The reason why I like Joan’s character is because she rejected these expectations and decided to work anyways. As I stated earlier Joan started off thinking she wanted what was expected of her from society, however as time passed and responsibilities grew so did she. She turned out to be a strong individual that didn’t need a man to lead a happy life. In fact she eventually divorced her husband and it didn’t effect her negatively one bit. I think what would have been the most damaging thing that could have happened to Joan was not working. Not working would have meant that she would have lost the excitement and validation she got from running the administrative side of the advertising agency. Not only that but, without her job she wouldn’t have had been able to leave her husband in the first place, thus no independence or freedom. It goes to show that the societal norms in the 60’s actually held women back from being financially independent / individually free. Those brave women that chose to work despite the stigma learned this truth firsthand and were better for it.