ABSTRACT
The concluding chapter examines the afterlife of the early twentieth-century “working girl” through the popular television show Mad Men (2007–2015), arguing that the ideology of secretarial work continues to affect office work in the twenty-first century. Drawing on Angela McRobbie’s theory of postfeminism, I suggest that Mad Men combines neoliberal feminism with postfeminist visual pleasure and ironic distancing to shore up the gender-segregated workplace of the 1950s and 1960s. While the show deliberately sets its narrative in the distant past, part of its appeal is in both reinforcing and making visible a sexist culture that is still powerfully present in most white-collar workplaces. Contemporary workingwomen can recognize themselves in the show’s protagonist, who can only advance through individual entrepreneurial strategies rather than collective struggle. I close with a reflection on the rise of the “gig” economy—contingent work that increasingly takes place outside the traditional office. While this new structure is effecting many changes in workers’ lives, the few existing studies suggest that it does not mitigate gender inequality.
