The Fight for Women’s Rights
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Introduction
Considered to be the epitome of writers advocating for gender equality and essentially creating the modern Vindication of the Rights of Women, Betty Friedan’s greatest life accomplishment begin with here accomplishments as a Women’s Rights activist. Despite the myriads of writing pieces on the confinements of gender stereotypes, her accomplishments are shined in her co-founding of the National Organization of Women in 1966. She furthered her notions for equality of women by creating the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, which helped give more precedence to women and help them with abortion laws. Incited by other women feminists and looking for a revolution, Betty Friedan is undoubtedly the pinnacle of women advocates to date.
Section 1: Social Problem addressed by the Humanitarian
Betty Friedan was a women’s right’s activist who pushed for the equality of women. Since the beginning of times, society has been predominantly patriarchal, and hence women have been stereotyped and confined because of this. In the Early modern world, Chinese culture had the women foot bound so that they’re feet would decrease in size, and they would essentially become weaker, human beings. She found her passion in this subject because of the repercussions of WWII, where women were severally inhibited and had very limited job opportunities. Some were forced to enlist in the military because of the amounting casualties. Women participation in the war was in fact prominent, however it was degrading and it caused social conflicts because of the confining stereotypes. The issue of legalized abortion became prominen...
... middle of paper ...
...1921-2006: A Leader of the Modern Women's Rights Movement." VOA. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.
"Betty Friedan and the Abortion Movement." Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.
"Betty Friedan Biography." About.com Women's History. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Betty Friedan (American Author and Feminist)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 19 May 2014.
Fox, Margalit. "Betty Friedan, Who Ignited Cause In 'Feminine Mystique,' Dies at 85." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Feb. 2006. Web. 15 May 2014.
PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 19 May 2014.
"What Betty Friedan Did and Didn’t Do." Christian Feminism Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.
"What Did Betty Friedan's Work Mean to You?" Two Cents. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.
"World Biography." Betty Friedan Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.
This work was rejected by many of the more conservative elements in the movement and a storm of protest arose as many of her colleagues condemned her. When she dies in 1902, she was no longer the movement’s leader and was unfortunately, not around to see women’s suffrage in the United States. Her crusade lasted for over fifty years of her life, as she learned and profited from her mistakes and failures, realizing that everything isn’t perfect. Even though she has been dead for quite some time now, her concerns, ideas, and accomplishments have endured and continue to influence the feminist movement and other movements for progress in the twentieth century.
Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. Women's voices, feminist visions: classic and contemporary readings. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
Marshall, Heather. “ A Woman With a Cause: An Overview of Judy Brady’s Influential Essay ‘I
She realized that she couldn't just say, "The identity crisis of American women began a century ago,"(791) without explaining why or how. Friedan goes on to say that when the freedom and work they, women, were allowed was being taken away from women is when this crisis started. This crisis being the feeling of helplessness and of being excluded from everyday life. As well as, them just not knowing what they're doing with their lives. Working has truly helped in this regard by helping one find themselves. Betty Friedan explains, "Work, the shopworn staple of the economists, has become the new frontier of psychology. Psychiatrists have long used "occupational therapy" with patients in mental hospitals; they have recently discovered that to be of real psychological value, it must be not just "therapy", but real work," (791) Friedan effectively expressed her ideas by giving explanation to go along with her statements though she also hit her readers with some of the emotions women of the time
During the reconstruction of the South many people had opposing views on black rights. The south predominantly thought blacks were inferior, but the North was more accepting of black rights. After years of fighting between confederates and abolitionists black rights were finally put into place. Black rights caused disunity between the people just as Women's Suffrage in the 20’s did. Just as black rights were sanctioned with time, Women's suffrage should also have been acknowledged. Throughout the 20’s many woman tried to obtain popularity in women's suffrage by holding meetings. The Seneca Falls Convention, organized by Elizabeth Staton, was a convention held by women's rights activists. These meetings addressed many issues that affected women's rights. These meeting were held to start giving notoriety to the issues pertaining to woman. Women's rights in the 20th century was an extremely controversial topic. Although women had been seen as inferior for many years, looking at the documents it’s unequivocal that woman should have been given the same domestic, political and social rights as men.
Every citizen of the United State was grant the right to vote since their birth in the United State or when they passed
The “Feminine Mystique” is a highly influential book in the early second wave feminism movement. It is said that it helped shaped the demands of the second wave by insisting for the right to work outside the home, and to be paid equally; the right for reproductive freedom; the demand that women should not be expected to have children and be mothers if they do not want to. Betty Friedan addresses “the problem that has no name” which is the women who are highly educated, suburban housewives that are bored and want something “more” in their life. This is the point where women knew we needed a second wave. Women’s role had gone backwards and they were beginning to realize that they were all experiencing the same “problem that has no name”. “The
To get the answer to her question, she began to survey women of Smith College. Her findings lead to the writing of her first book, The Feminine Mystique. The book uses other women’s personal experiences along with her own experiences to describes the idea behind being a feminist. “At every step of the way, the feminists had to fight the conception that they were violating the God-given nature of woman… The image of the feminists as inhuman, fiery man-eater, whether expressed as an offense against God or in the modern terms of sexual perversion, is not unlike the stereotype of the Negro as a primitive animal or the union member as an anarchist” (86-87). That image of women that has been created by society and the same idea applies to race and how it is something that is so prone to society about things no one can change. Feminists were the ones who were able to fight for their rights even though some may believe that isn't what women are made to be but Betty Friedan did, which motivated her to fight for women’s rights in the second wave feminist movement. She was able to accomplish helping more women fight for their rights and set the ground for the women fighting
Stefoi, E. (2008) Women’s rights history – from suffrage to diplomatic career: address. Available at: http://ottawa.mae.ro/index.php?lang=en&id=66579 (Accessed: 27 February 2010)
It is a terrible feeling to have something you worked so hard on and have it all taken away. Friedan displayed in her books all the hard work women had to do, and have it all taken away. It is not fair, but because of the paradigm shift, it makes women work just as hard as men or even harder. Once women were going back to college, men were having hard times trying to find a job. This was a great point because Friedan shows to everyone all the hard work she put in, even when being married and with children. Women are considered to be weak and less important which can cause gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes will continue unless women as a whole prove to society that we are just as important as
“The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality,” this was stated by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a very crucial women’s suffragist. Over time, women’s history has evolved due to the fact that women were pushing for equal rights. Women were treated as less than men. They had little to no rights. The Women’s Rights Movement in the 1800’s lead up to the change in women’s rights today. This movement began in 1848 with the Seneca Falls Convention. For the next 72 years, women continually fought for equal rights. In 1920, they gained the right to vote which ended the movement and opened the opportunity for more change in women’s lives. Because of the Women’s Rights Movement, women today are able to vote, receive
But when the “Women’s Movement,” is referred to, one would most likely think about the strides taken during the 1960’s for equal treatment of women. The sixties started off with a bang for women, as the Food and Drug Administration approved birth control pills, President John F. Kennedy established the President's Commission on the Status of Women and appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman, and Betty Friedan published her famous and groundbreaking book, “The Feminine Mystique” (Imbornoni). The Women’s Movement of the 1960’s was a ground-breaking part of American history because along with African-Americans another minority group stood up for equality, women were finished with being complacent, and it changed women’s lives today.
When comparing the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Betty Friedan, and Bell Hooks, I assert that both Gilman and Friedan stress that college educated, white upper- and middle-class women should have the incentive to fight against and alter the rigid boundaries of marriage; however, Hooks in her piece From Margin to Center argues that Friedan and other feminist writers during the second wave had written or spoke shortsightedly, failing to regard women of other races and classes who face the most sexist oppression.
Beginning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century women began to vocalize their opinions and desires for the right to vote. The Women’s Suffrage movement paved the way to the nineteenth Amendment in the United States Constitution that allowed women that right. The Women’s Suffrage movement started a movement for equal rights for women that has continued to propel equal opportunities for women throughout the country. The Women’s Liberation Movement has sparked better opportunities, demanded respect and pioneered the path for women entering in the workforce that was started by the right to vote and given momentum in the late 1950s.
In the past, many people believed that women’s exclusive responsibilities were to serve their husband, to be great mothers and to be the perfect wives. Those people considered women to be more appropriate for homemaking rather than to be involved in business or politics. This meant that women were not allowed to have a job, to own property or to enjoy the same major rights as men. The world is changing and so is the role of women in society. In today’s society, women have rights that they never had before and higher opportunities to succeed.