I have heard 2 men (in real life) complain that though they like Agent Carter, they really want to stop with the heavy-handedness of emphasizing that she is a woman, and that women after the war were displaced, etc. They really felt like they were being hit over the head with it.

I didn't at all. Did anyone else? I am wondering if it is one of those "Woman talk 20% of the time and men perceive them as monopolizing the conversation" things.

I thought women being displaced thing was kind of underplayed, personally. I think you are right in your analogy.

I think you're right on, too, Sophia.

I suspect that "hitting over the head" = mentioning at all.

For what it's worth, I thought it was a bit strong in regards to Peggy and her relationship with the SSR, though appropriate to the period in general. I mean, I doubt guys were snapping their fingers for the lady guarding the door at Project Rebirth to go fetch them a fresh cup of coffee.

Well, there's "guarding the door" and then there's "let's tuck the pretty secretary/assistant out of the way while the important work gets done." They may not know what she did. They all think she slept with Steve and probably Howard.

I mean, I doubt guys were snapping their fingers for the lady guarding the door at Project Rebirth to go fetch them a fresh cup of coffee.

This sort of thing still happens now, what makes you think it wasn't going on in the 40s?

I was disappointed. I thought the show would be about Carter and her intrepid band during the war. the post war chauvanism isn't what i thought i was getting.

My point is that the SSR in New York City had more than one woman in a position of responsibility, contributing to their projects capably, just a couple of years before the setting of Agent Carter. It seems beyond the pale to me that every interaction Peggy has with people in that same organization is now tinged with condescension and dismissal of her agency.

But, Matt, there was a war on. Which is a phrase used often to excuse non-standard behavior. A big push after the war was to "get back to normal." The agency that women used was considered something borrowed, and lots of people, men and women, assumed that most women would be happy to give up the "burden" and get back to their proper work. Women going into the factories and military was considered a sad commentary on the hardships of war, not a chance to show what a woman could do. Many, many people breathed a sigh of relief that the old roles could be reassumed. People being people, there were lots of folks who liked the wartime roles, but in general, society did not approve.

In the SSR, there may be people thinking Peggy is being wasted, but on the whole, I see it as a situation where the men have come back from war and are expecting to have the useful jobs for themselves. The women were placeholders, no matter how competent they were.