Speaking as the mother of a two year old, there's a big difference between loving babies and loving parenting. Betty does not enjoy her older children.

Getting a divorce in NY is really hard (we're still the only state in the country without no-fault divorce), so I'd say no to your other question - without the box, she'd have no leverage against him.

I think though, that that what she thinks she wants. We've said before that her life with new creepy guy probably isn't going to satisfy her, either. Her dipping a toe into local politics seeming to satisfy her in a way that she can't quite figure out just now.

But I think she was taught that the way a woman picks her life is to pick her guy. So she thinks "Different guy, different life," Even though it's really the whole domestic goddess baggage that is the problem(and, really, that nobody else can really be "your life,") Although people still hate to hear mothers say that.

I agree with Jessica. Betty is frustrating because everything in her life points to a major feminist awakening, but she's been so warped in her expectations by her mother that she will never make that leap. Also, she sucks because she's an unempathetic narcissist. Just like, I suspect, her mother.

It might be useful, Aimee, to draw parallels to Joan and Peggy who have had a similar series of choices in front of them and branched off in different ways.

Joan wants the same things that Betty wants - the marriage, children, money. But she's actually happier in the work place, where her ultra-competentence is appreciated. And she's closer to learning that than Betty is.

Peggy was in a position to leverage a marriage to Pete (frightful thought!) when she was pregnant. But she didn't choose marriage and she didn't choose to be a single parent. She took the harder earlier choice but has the brighter immediate future.

Peggy was in a position to leverage a marriage to Pete (frightful thought!) when she was pregnant.

Pete was already married when she found out, wasn't he?

Pete was already married when she found out, wasn't he?

Yep. Their hookup was the night of his bachelor party.

Oops, my bad. No leverage. But you can still contrast Peggy's choices, though in many ways Joan's choices and circumstances make a better comparison with Betty.

Peggy seems to think she could have forced Pete to divorce Trudy and marry her instead, but I'm not sure how realistic that was.

Give Pete's "passing along his blood" issues, she might have had a shot. Not saying a great shot, but a lot bigger than zero.

Don't know if you want to branch your thesis like this, but there is an interesting comparison to be made between Pete and Don. Both were raised in their own way by wolves. Both are trying to learn from the social norms of their time. (There was the scene when Petey's father died, and he wondered how he was supposed to feel about it. And Don told him not to worry too much about what he felt, but to take some time off. And Pete asked (paraphrase) "is taking time off really what a normal person would do at a time like this?" And Don tells him it is. Both Petey and Don are users and manipulators. But Don is better at it, because he has enough empathy to other people to have some idea of how they will react. Pete understands the world better than Don, but Don understands individuals better. And where this might tie into your thesis is the contrast in how Trudy deals with Petey and how Betty deals with Don. Betty plays the traditional housewife role, and earns Don's contempt. (Don loves the marriage, but once Betty stopped being a fashion model no longer loved her. Or if that is too simple at least no longer respected her. Betty wants to be a real partner, but chose to accept a role where that was the last thing she was. Trudy used her connection from the beginning to make a power play - getting a loan from her parents for the co-op apartment she wanted. Though Petey occasionally reduces her to tears, she treats him like a child, scolding him when he does wrong, kissing him when he does something she approves of. She preps him to act like a human at work, and use repetition to drill him in behavoir that is not natural to him. Given Don's Madonna/whore complex, something like that might have worked for Betty. But Madonna is a role she can't play. She is not much of a mother to her children, and is even less able to play Mommy to a grown man. Both Don and Petey had awful parents. Don I think has managed to move past looking for a father, but not past looking for a mother. (Look at his relationship with the real Don Draper's widow - a pretty strong maternal vibe. )