mAD WOMEN.

Yippee!  On Sunday Mad Men  won the Golden Globe for best dramatic TV series.  It should also take the cake for its disturbing portrayal of women.  Note that I am not talking about January Jones' headband.

Disturbing not because wrong, but because so right.  Women were subjects for mockery, objects for ogling, and --at the very best-- professional second bananas in the 1960s workplace when series takes place.

And also in early 70s when I began my ad career.  Even though the Women's Movement was starting up and even though I was working in a non-traditional ad agency.  My agency was then known in town as the Jewish agency.  Our execs were not invited to join the mainstream business or golf clubs.  Although we did great creative work, it was primarily for retailers and not for auto clients--which in Detroit was the sign of being a real agency. 

Our founder was a man of principle, of enormous talent, of great courteousness and generosity; his warmth, spirit and drive drove the culture of the workplace.  Yet even with his mindset, no woman held a truly senior position at that time or ever.  (Which was the cause of my starting my own agency in 1984.)  And in the 70's a senior creative manager regularly harassed women -- and they were fired for non-compliance.  This included my creative partner, who never even thought about confronting or reporting him--at that time, there was no such thing as a sexual harassment concept or crime.  (The owner was  reportedly shocked, angry and embarrassed to find out about his colleague's longstanding behavior when revealed in a lawsuit a decade later.  And fired the slimeball.)  

Like Mad Men, our agency had a Joan, the eyes and ears of a top executive...who amassed power over other women.  Our Joan once instructed me to tell a colleague to use more deodorant and to stop wearing hotpants to work.  (Hey, it was the 70s;  I got my job wearing white go-go boots...)  I refused Joan--and could get away with it only because I was a creative professional and not in a secretarial of administrative position. 

Even though I was somewhat protected both from Joan and from any harassment by my position and  by my boss--like the owner, a man of integrity and fairness--I was still a mAD WOMAN on behalf of friends who did not have the same situation.

If you are interested, I will tell you some of their stories.