This master’s thesis delves into the female experience in the television series Mad Men with a particular focus on the characters of Betty Draper and Peggy Olson. Their contrasting narratives provide a lens through which to view the evolving societal roles of women during the 1960s. This analysis examines societal conformity, patriarchial structures and traditional gender roles as the basis of the constructed reality of the American Dream. Using Betty Friedan's work in The Feminine Mystique, the character of Betty Draper is analysed. To her, the character of Peggy Olson is juxtaposed, as a symbol of the cultural shifts and the second wave of feminism. Using Žižek's notion of reality constructed on fantasy, the concept of the American Dream was examined as a fragile fabricated reality. Furthermore, using Lacan's framework for „big Other“, this thesis examined the perpetuation of the existing ideological structures through advertising. In this exploration, the study revealed how Betty's dissatisfaction with forced domesticity and infantilization encapsulates the collective female experience of 1960s America and it deconstructs the fantasy of traditional gender roles. Furthermore, Peggy Olson's character arc explores the changing societal expectations and deconstructs the fantasies of the American Dream. This paper reached the conclusion that Mad Men offers an examination of the collective American identity, as it explores the hyper-consumerist society, the commodification of happiness and the female experience in the era that shaped the American cultural landscape.