Margot Sherman, the professional name of Margaret Sherman Peet, was initiated into the Alpha Mu Chapter of Sigma Kappa at the University of Michigan. She earned a bachelor’s in journalism in 1927 and was the first female to graduate from the journalism department. Sherman was tapped for Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa honor societies. She won Michigan’s Gold Award Medal.
Sherman married Charles D. Peet, the brother of one of her Sigma Kappa sisters, on September 12, 1931. The couple had a son and a daughter. Sherman worked for newspapers including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Detroit News and Detroit Times before entering the advertising field.
Her career was the true Mad Men experience and the series reflected much about her life in the man’s world of advertising. Sherman started as a copywriter for Madison Avenue advertising agency McCann-Erickson, Inc. She spent the rest of her career, 37 years, there. Sherman was the at McCann-Erickson’s first coordinator of consumer affairs.
The American Advertising Federation honored her as the 1958 Advertising Woman of the Year.
Sherman became a senior vice president and assistant to the president of McCann-Erickson in 1964 and was the first woman to serve on the ad agency’s board.
The University of Michigan honored her with an Outstanding Achievement Award. After retirement, she became national president of Women in Communications, Inc. formerly known as Theta Sigma Phi. She also served as a director of the Japanese International Christian University Foundation and as a governor of Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, New York.
She died on August 6, 1997 at the age of 90. One of her five grandchildren is the actress Amanda Peet.
