Ya know, so much happened before the time I actually thought it did. Maybe it's just that I didn't really feel the effects for myself until I was old enough for it to be felt, which was in my teens during the early 70s.

Betty could do lots of stuff outside the home. My mom didn't go back to work until the early 70s, but during our childhoods she took classes, worked for the League of Women Voters and volunteered for various policital campaigns and causes.

One thing that she tells me which the show glosses over a bit is that, yes, lots of women were home all day. However, because they all were home, there was a lot of childcare switching off, so individual women could have time to volunteer or work part-time or go to a matinee or whatever. I know her freinds were a rather smart lot, but it was the suburbs in the '60s and they all had outside interests.

Betty could do lots of stuff outside the home.

She could, but her default life is still "the home," and Don's isn't. She can kick him out, but she can't leave herself, because the kids and house are explicitly her responsibility and not his.

I think you're underestimating Betty's sense of social privilege and entitlement. She doesn't want a job.

We can see that she's bored and restless and unchallenged, but that's not how she perceives her situation or dilemma.

Her problem is that her husband cheats. At least, that's how she sees the problem.

Earlier we saw Joan renounce any ambition in the man's world, but later we saw her hopes crushed when got a taste of that and discovered the satisfactions of the work.

Betty has no glimmer of what would engage her outside her home. It's beyond her set of social expectations and she's only beginning to challenge those.

Betty has no glimmer of what would engage her outside her home. It's beyond her set of social expectations and she's only beginning to challenge those.

It's not just beyond her social expectations, I'd say it's beyond her intellectual expectations, too. Not that I think Betty is stupid, but she doesn't do anything to challenge herself. People with a true intellectual curiosity will seek out the things that challenge them.

People with a true intellectual curiosity will seek out the things that challenge them.

Like Don. Who bothers to read Frank O'Hara, see Antonioni films and chat up the hot rodders.

I was looking over some blogs on the show, and in their episode reviews I had forgotten that Joan started the season being pretty bitchy. Her scornful takedown of Paul, her cluelessness about his girlfriend at the party, putting the copier in Peggy's office, and complete destruction of Lois contrast with where she wound up at the end of the season.

And Pete's character arc has been amazing. His character is one of the most fascinating to me now. VK's really done a spectacular job. You really sense the dim stirrings of a real man in there despite his many limitations.

I'd say it's beyond her intellectual expectations, too. Not that I think Betty is stupid, but she doesn't do anything to challenge herself.

Yet at the same time, at one point (I think it was during the first season?) she was very defensive about her education and intellect, talking about how she'd gone to Bryn Mawr. She didn't want people seeing her just as some bubble-headed housewife.

talking about how she'd gone to Bryn Mawr.

You can go to school because you're encouraged to and you can even be interested in and good at what you're studying, but a self-actualized person will have a curiosity above and beyond their immediate surroundings. Betty doesn't. She may come into eventually and I think that's some of what we're being shown, but I think she's still got a hell of a long way to go and Don better be in it for the long haul.

I think you're underestimating Betty's sense of social privilege and entitlement. She doesn't want a job.

If that was aimed at me, I don't think she wants a job. I think she wants to lie on a beach eating bon bons all day. She doesn't want freedom to accomplish anything, she just wants freedom from anyone wanting anything from her.

I'd say she wants to be a trophy wife, but even that carries a bundle of unwelcome social expectations. She wants to be a trophy daughter.

And I think, in that way, she a Trudy are very much the same.