I am generally skeptical of grand narratives about "patriarchy", particularly the more widely and vaguely it is defined. The world of Mad Men and present day Iranian regime could both be called sexist, but they share little in common in what this sexism consists of and how it fits into larger cultural meanings and structures within those societies. There is also often the assumption that all women everywhere basically want the same things, and it is far from clear that this is the case. It seems to me that a gendered division of labor is only significantly unsatisfying to women within particular conditions, and that is a big part of the story of why it is contested at some points in history and not others.
It's also worth noting that the world of Mad Men arguably wasn't some "progression 'forward'" as far as sexism goes but indeed represented a far more unfair world to women than the more traditional societies that predated it. Dr. Jordan Cooper has a great YouTube video criticizing the "Trad Wife" phenomena where he points out that the weird archetype of the 1950s suburban woman staying home and cleaning/cooking while her husband leaves to the office is NOT traditional in a historic sense, and truly "traditional" societies had much more of a cohesive family unit where the father was expected to work as a team with his wife in a much more meaningful way.
Yes, we have this odd tendency to project 1950's culture backward indefinitely: getting married age 18-21, having 4ish (surviving) kids, lots of people with below average incomes owning homes, ~75% of married women doing no paid work at all, etc. None of this was historically normal! The mid 20th century was a uniquely non-competitive time in the economy due to the aftermath of the World Wars. Relatively unskilled workers enjoyed leverage in the labor market unseen since the generation after the Black Death 600 years earlier, which facilitated these early marriages (long run average age of marriage in Western Europe was mid 20's) and large households. However, they still generally did work that depended on physical strength and favored men.
I would also agree that, historically, the mid 20th century was a uniquely bad time for relatively high status women, the manager/business owner's wife demographic. They were generally expected to cook, clean, and do their own childcare like everyone else while their husband went off to do business and they were cut off from the support of extended family. An ancient clan leader's wife almost surely had more power and influence (and with servants to do the dirty work), to say nothing of an earlier American yeoman farmer's wife. This may even apply to more modern forms of social status. Rates of higher education for American women actually declined 1900-1950!
In America, the historic political base for treating your wife equally was always small farmers in the Midwest and West, with city dwellers and Southern plantation aristocrats pushing back. I think that speaks to a potential loss of status for many women during the early part of industrialization.
