Peggy is a proto-feminist, pluckily moving from secretary to ad copywriter in the shockingly sexist environment of an early 1960s ad agency. The fictional Sterling Cooper agency is rife with the creepy quality of young women behaving girlishly to attract older men. Peggy stands out from the other women in the office for her refusal to play those games as much as for her professional ambition. She dresses modestly, without any apparent concern for fashion trends. She does not sell herself, even though she sells products for a living. Peggy handles her femininity with a sort of demure understatement. She seeks sexual independence and liberation; she isn’t afraid to hit on a man, and she doesn’t feel the need to behave like a coquettish teenager or a sexual object.
