>I’ve not watched this particular show.<

Then you don't know what you are talking about.

>Housewives report to no boss, schedule their own hours/duties, face no annual review, and if ever fired, get the kids, house, and half the savings (unlike a nannies or maids)<

If you'd seen any episode of MAD MEN (or really read THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE, or any history of the period), you would know this wasn't the case. Being a housewife was a 24/7 job. And back in the day it was _all_ a woman was supposed to aspire to. Do you at all understand that? Do you at all see that every woman, no matter what her personality or talents, was supposed to live up to an insane standard of being perfect mother, housecleaner, social director, and wife--_and_ they were supposed to like it? You keep seeing feminism as a plot to keep men down. The reason feminism came about is because most women did not have the freedom to live as they wanted to--a freedom most men had. (And please spare us the whining about how men were chained to the corporate wheel. Men could up and leave any time they felt like it. There were very few social consequences for men who didn't want to marry or who wanted to spend their lives in the Army or who wanted to be artists. Women as a rule didn't have near that many choices.)

>If “Draper's wife, however lonely, behaves honorably, or at least tries to…” what does it mean? That HE doesn’t try? That “trying” is more important than doing? If she’s “honest about her missteps” maybe there’s no cost. Maybe she's like a politician who assumes “full responsibility” because there’s no penalty.<

Draper's entire life is a lie that he conciously perpetuates. Betty was trained as a woman to live up to a certain image; Don embraced that image no matter what the cost. Betty is beginning to find out that that image is not fulfilling, while Don clings to his because he doesn't know how (or who else) to be. For Betty to question the status quo is a very big deal, for it means she could easily wind up divorced and broke with kids to raise--fired from her housewife job, as it were.

>Feminists never mention that men can be (and mostly are) disempowered, too.<

Why weren't most guys like you complaining that you were "disempowered" back in MAD MEN's era? That's because most of you were still calling the shots and living the kind of life you wanted.

>Men are viewed as bugs who can’t feel and so don’t mind working long hours or getting shot.<

Hey, you can't blame women for a system men take pride in perpetuating. Women weren't the ones who determined what a "real" man should be about--that judgement was rendered by male writers, religious leaders, politicians, and so on.

>It’s interesting to me, though, that the orphaned star is called a coward for wanting to leave his family by the “other woman”…one who apparently thinks sleeping with married men is “brave.” She is thought compassionate for being an adulteress, he immature for wanting out of a loveless marriage (which he’d still be expected to pay for). <

Don's marriage isn't loveless. He and Betty care for each other, but he is incapable of telling her the truth about who he really is. And instead of doing so, he continues to hide and evade. And the only reason he wanted to leave is because a co-worker was about to rat out that he's an imposter--not because his wife doesn't love him.

>I wonder, though, how the show depicts the female/mother who abandoned the protagonist.<

She was a prostitute. When she died, Don's dad took the boy in, but he and his wife (and her next husband) treated Don like garbage--the "whore-child."

>If “all of the male characters on ‘Mad Men’ are disconnected from their families” why is that? Could they suffer from the same “problem that has no name” that Freidan wrote of? She focused on only half the problem: The housewife kept from college and career. She ignored men kept from familial, close, personal relations.<

Because men back then weren't complaining about that problem in numbers big enough to show they knew it was a problem.

>Guys who become successful in business pay price. It’s often personal and high. The women attracted to such men (their success, really) often later complain that with such men there’s no “there there.” I wonder if they ever admit their expectations were both unrealistic and inhumane?<

Do men like you who want only beautiful young women ever admit your expectations are unrealistic and inhumane? That sword cuts both ways, homes...

>If Draper’s marriage “grew from false pretenses” why didn’t his fiancée know more? Did she even ask? Or was it enough that she knew he was a rich ad exec?<

Betty was taught never to look beneath the surface. That's what "nice, girls" raised to be good wifey-moos were supposed to do. As well, Don has scrupulously avoided telling her _anything_ about his family--and he's shown he doesn't want to discuss the topic in no uncertain terms. So what is she supposed to do? If she starts asking questions, you would accuse her of being nosy and not leaving her poor overworked husband in peace. :P