I think it's the time period. It was a very ignorant time and though I understand spreading awareness on this mindset that sadly still exist today, that latest "because your a woman" scene is depressing to watch.
Well, it was ignorant in some ways, progressive in others. Not long ago, I listened to the surviving episodes of the
Adventures of Superman radio series, and in the post-WWII years, the show became really driven by progressive values, with lots of stories about Superman fighting racial and religious bigotry and politicians and demagogues who stirred up fear and hate of outsiders. There was this really utopian sense of America being this place that was moving forward into a united future and overcoming the intolerance of the past -- although at the same time, the fact that they were speaking out so aggressively against racial and religious hate groups probably reflects how active such groups were at the time.
And in a number of '40s movies and radio shows I've experienced lately, I've noted a real sense of modernism, an attitude that society was in a new, forward-looking age of science and reason and enlightenment and was on the verge of achieving great things now that it had outgrown the follies of the past. Of course, this was alongside ingrained sexism of the sort seen in
Agent Carter, as well as deep-seated racial prejudices that weren't as easily overcome as those
Superman writers in 1946-8 hoped they would be. So it was at once a very progressive society and a very backward one, by our standards. Maybe this show isn't focusing enough on the progressive side.
Plus, the show isn't what I expected. In Captain America: TFA, Peggy was the type of person who'd knock a guy out for talking out of line, having connections with high ranking officials, being a part of the war planning process, and leading assults with a tommy-gun. Now, all of a sudden, she's ditsy and submissive around the office with the rank of taking people's lunch orders? I thought she'd be the exception to that "all men are better" mindset.
But that's the way it was in the post-WWII era. During the war, not only were women needed in the workplace once all the able-bodied men were out on the front, but a lot of societal conflicts and prejudices were put aside in the name of fighting the common enemy. But once that fight was over, those deferred prejudices reasserted themselves and the spirit of equality receded. And the men coming back from the front, seeing women in the jobs that were formerly theirs, wanted them to go back to home and hearth rather than staying in the workplace as competition.