How ‘Mad Women’ are changing the face of agencies | Advertising

The era of Mad Men did not end in the 1960’s or 70s. In fact, the era of Mad Men is still very much with usthe misogyny, the chauvinism and the harassment perpetuated by legions of “agency white dudes,” confident in their right to rule the ad world.

Today, as in the Mad Men era, women‘s creative ideas are regularly appropriated by their male bosses. Women are sexually harassed with no options other than to leave for “political reasons,” code for a woman who was sexually harassed out of her job. Women regularly get fired for getting pregnant (as I was just after the birth of my first daughter) and maternity leave virtually doesn’t exist because you know your job is at risk if you take more than a few weeks. The final insult is the “Mommy Track” which reduced to zero any chance of landing a choice assignment or a promotion because you can’t be the “24/7/365” agency warrior they wanted.

Is it any wonder there are a lot of mad women out there? What is the real wonder is how long these issues were festering without progress.

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