    Throughout the fictional history of Mad Men we are introduced to the internal conflicts of the anti-hero Donald Draper and how they represent the struggle for change in 1960s America. Initially, we see him as a suave, dashing businessman who makes a living as the creative director of an advertising company. The more we learn about him, the more we perceive him as a person we hate. As Stephen Garrett puts it in Why We Love TV's Anti-Heroes, a protagonist who “can be downright evil and yet elicit the sympathy” of us, the audience. People watching are initially geared to enjoy Don's lavish and care-free lifestyle of daytime drinking and multiple sexual partners but eventually grow to want Don to mature and clean himself up. Eventually, we see Don slowly being replaced; his wife remarries while new creative talent comes into the Ad firm. This parallels the sentiments of Americans during the 60s. It was a time of massive drug use and sexual exploration fighting against the old, conservative ways of the 1950s. The view of American Lynn Povich, an award winning journalist and Women's rights activist, comments on these ideas when she wrote that her generations was “in transition, raised in one era and coming of age in another, very different time...here we were, entering the workplace in the 1960s questioning--and often rejecting--many of the values we had been taught.” Weiner infers that the 1960s was when the younger generation seemed to have a more liberal view on life, while the older generation found themselves lagging behind. 
    The struggle for change in Mad Men (and the political commentary with comes with it) also extends beyond the main character. In it's first few seasons, Mad Men has been what Journalist Jady Doyle calls the show “a ticket to a world of bygone pleasures”. Racy acts such as drinking on the job or hitting on your secretary were what drew many people to the show. The biggest knock on Mad Men is how it represents sexism on the show; we see sexism through acts like non-consensual sex or the overall treatment of women as objects of desire. The show is set up this way not to infuriate the show's watchers, but as a means to portray how people changed throughout the 1960s. Later on in the show we see not only Don, but several other characters experience change. Roger Sterling, Don's business partner and friend, begins to experience serious health problems after constant drinking and smoking. Sterling’s deteriorating health represents the repercussions of excessive drug use in the 1950s. In 1964,  the United States Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health found that “excessive cigarette smoking causes lung cancer is cited as the major turning point for public health action against cigarettes”. Joan Holloway and Peggy Olson, the two main female characters of Mad Men, struggle constantly to climb up the corporate ladder as women in the 1960s.  Initially, Peggy is subjected to a lowly secretary job where her male coworkers crudely remark on her looks and pay no mind to what she tries to say. Eventually, both are acknowledged for their hard work with promotions, but have yet to become the major players at the firm (roles always held by men). Like Peggy and Joan, Sexism in the workplace was an actual issue that Lynn Povich faced. Povich explains in her book, The Good Girls Revolt, that after being hired by the magazine Newsweek, her and other women were given basic secretary jobs despite holding college degrees. The women at Newsweek who did have identical jobs to men were even being paid less. Povich and the other women banded together, winning several lawsuits against Newsweek and forwarding Women's rights in the process. Despite all her progress, Povich feels that “many of the injustices that young women face now are the same ones women fought 40 years ago. Sexism is still alive and well in the workplace.” Peggy Olsen's character is an analysis and commentary on women in a 1960s workplace. She works endlessly to earn respect from her coworkers but has yet to truly gain it. In the latest season of Mad Men, Peggy is finally promoted to Creative Director. At first Peggy is content, but she soon finds that in her conquest to become successful she has become just as lonely and miserable as Don.
