"She may simply have succumbed, not wanting to have sex with Pete, but recognizing that in that society at that time, in a foreign country with her job already on the line, she was trapped."

Except for the foreign country, that 's a perfect description of coercive sex in the business environment of the time, before Title VII. Pete has provided a service to an attractive single young woman in trouble with her employer, and he thinks that sex is his due for getting her out of it. More to the point, he thinks that she thinks so too, because that's the way the world works and she either understands this or damn well ought to.

Not a good world for a woman. And please remember the equal pay for equal work act which Peggy references when she asks for a raise. Note how useless laws like that finally are if the environment has not changed. Don could simply shrug off the Act. He knows she isn't going to sue.

Yeah.....I was kind of thinking that this was like coercive sex in the workplace, too. The au pair didn't resist, exactly, but she seemed resigned as if she knew this was something with which she had to go along in order to protect her job. It reminded me of a few episodes in my early life in the working world, although I was able to fend off the advances that didn't interest me.

Yes, but... I'm really uncomfortable lumping that all into "rape". Whether or not it would have been made her life difficult to refuse, if there would be consequences, the au pair clearly assented to the encounter. And... again given that the mores of the time still required "good girls" to offer a show of resistance before acquiescing to their "true" desire, there's really nothing that happened that would have let Pete know he wasn't doing exactly what she wanted him to do. Until well after the fact. The kicker for me remains that she reached for him after their kiss began. There's no reason he shouldn't have taken that for a green light.

Ianto Steerpike:

Yes, but... I'm really uncomfortable lumping that all into "rape". Whether or not it would have been made her life difficult to refuse, if there would be consequences, the au pair clearly assented to the encounter. .

Well, maybe. The ambiguity is whether the assent was the product of resignation towards superior force. You're correct that under the mores of the time Pete would a show of reluctance as no more than a show.

In states like New Jersey that follow the Model Penal Code, sexual assault nowadays can involve either physical force or "coercion," which is defined to include the threatened disclosure of embarassing private facts. It can also involve the abuse of supervisory power. A great deal of what went on in the workplace 50 years ago could be considered criminal under current law.

I saw something very different. Where was the clear consent? Pete closed the door and put his body in front of it. He physically intimidated her. Unfortunately this has been going on for centuries and across cultures-men taking advantage over women working in the household. Pete after being confronted by the neighbor I think realized what he did was wrong-or was he just feeling sorry for himself.