Robin Reed, Director of Online Communications

by Robin Reed, Online Outreach Manager 
National Women's Law Center 

“I don't know if you read in the paper, but they passed a law saying women who do the same work as men will get paid the same thing. Equal pay."

So said Peggy Olson, a (fictional) copywriter at a Madison Avenue advertising agency on Mad Men, AMC’s critically acclaimed TV series set in 1963. In this week’s episode, Peggy, the agency’s only female employee working in a non-administrative capacity, asked her boss for a raise. And didn’t get one.

Peggy, in Mad Men’s pre-women’s lib era, is a model for a woman making her own way in the world. She started out as a 20-year-old secretary making $35 a week until one of the men on staff noticed that she had a gift for copywriting. She eventually got two promotions, based on pure talent. Now she has her own office and secretary, simply because she was bold enough to ask for them (not bad — many women, in 1963 and 2009 alike, are reluctant to ask for things like promotions and perks, fearing retaliation). Peggy is often still the one who’s sent to get the coffee, and the men on staff have no qualms about making sexist and derogatory comments to her. And she’s paid less than her male colleagues.

This week, when Peggy asked her boss for a raise, she pointed out that she was being paid less than a fellow copywriter, Paul. Paul has the same title she has and isn't nearly as talented or dedicated as Peggy. He does, interestingly, have a degree from Princeton, whereas Peggy has only a secretarial school degree (and couldn't have gone to Princeton in any case, since Princeton didn't start awarding degrees to women until 1969). But being a Princeton alum doesn’t automatically merit getting paid more (especially in Paul’s case, since all he seems to have gotten out of his education was an affectation for fake British accents and mohair).