Remember anyone the demure, naive Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) of AMC's drama series Mad Men Season 1, the secretary of the suave Don Draper (Jon Hamm). The cigarette smoke filled office of Sterling Cooper hired women only to work on typewriters, as secretaries and to attend the phone room, as was the norm in the early nineteenth century. The women were not allowed to work, then.

At the advertising agency, the men held all the top positions, creative as well as for handling of the accounts. Typing on the typewriter what Boss Draper dictated was the only creative outlet that was provided to Peggy, who now holds the position of Creative Director in the critically acclaimed drama series Mad Men. She is, in fact, the de facto Creative Director after Don Draper's is sent on a forced leave.

Jerry Della Femina wrote in an article for Forbes about the time when his ad agency had won a project from a company to sell its new tampon. He and three other men were at the conference table, taking the client's briefing.

"The year was 1975. It was a time, an era and a mood that is so accurately portrayed today on the Mad Men television show. The advertising guru at the fictional Sterling Cooper firm, Don Draper, would have been brought in to give his ideas on how to sell a tampon," he wrote.

"Never once in the two-hour meeting did anyone suggest that, perhaps, we should have a woman join the discussion."

An interesting article was recently published in BBC magazine that linked the introduction of the typewriter to the arrival of the women in the office. The typewriter became a hit only after it targeted the women.

"The typewriter is especially adapted to feminine fingers. They seem to be made for typewriting. The typewriting involves no hard labour and no more skill than playing the piano," wrote John Harrison, in his 1888 Manual of the Typewriter, as quoted in the BBC Magazine's article.

The existence of a character like Peggy in Mad Men must have been made possible because of the typewriter. Otherwise, she did not have the sway to become the ornamental secretary, or the mind to do a menial job. Women almost had no say when it came to creative aspect or account management.

The demure girl who required no skills to type is now equal to Don Draper and has taken his place. She holds the highest position in an advertising agency's creative hierarchy, that of a Creative Director. Her rise from a typewriter girl, then to junior copy writer and head copy writer, and finally to the top position showcases the changing status of women at the work place, especially in advertising agencies.

The advertising agencies may still be full of mad men but mad women are now equally powerful and have been recoginsed for their creative brilliance. They hold some of the top positions both at the creative department as well as account management.

Peggy Olson now sits in the chair of Don Draper and watches New York's skyline, which was a far-fetched possibility in the first season of Mad Men.