Mad Men S03E11 "The Gypsy and the Hobo"

Three short stories about men making choices about women. Maybe. It's actually rare that this show is so male-oriented, and here their wives play a role the prominence of which is inversely proportional to the sympathy one feels for the male leads.

Maybe. Clearly the third story is mostly about Joan, and no one cares much for Dr. Rape, but despite the fact that here Draper is behaving worse than Roger is, the camera might be just enough in love with Hamm to keep him in the most sympathetic role.

Perhaps, then, the women are prominent in order of the power of their character. In other words, their power to assert prominent roles in their own stories. Mad Men can rely a little much on this sort of narrative, or at least its viewers can, relying on Joan's super powers to see her through a world that is more or less constructed in order to restrain her considerable power.