Betty Friedan Research Paper

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Betty Friedan opened the door for women to fight for gender equality, proving that women’s rights are valid. Betty Friedan wrote her book The Feminine Mystique in 1963, Betty Friedanin addition to her book The Feminine Mystique paved the way for women’s rights in America throughout the second half of the twentieth century. On February 4, 1921, Betty Friedan was born Bettye Goldstein in Peoria, Illinois. As a child, Friedan had a difficult childhood. Growing up, Betty and her mother Miriam Horwitz Goldstein had a difficult relationship. Later in life, Friedan attributed it to her mother’s anger in regards to not pursuing a career outside the home. In 1938, Betty Friedan attended Smith College. During college, she was a part of the school's newspaper. …show more content…

After graduation, Friedan received a fellowship to study at the University of California. She declined the offer at the time to begin working in New York as a reporter.2 Before Bettye took on the fellowship, she decided to drop the “e” in her name to make the spelling “Betty”. In 1947, Betty Friedan married Carl Friedan, Betty continued to work as she raised their first child, in spite of the fact that, after their second child, Friedan’s employer denied her maternity leave. Betty decided to leave her job in order to take on the role of childcare. After leaving her job, Friedan occasionally wrote articles for women’s magazines. Due to the leave from her job, Friedan began feeling depressed. With this depression, Friedan began researching psychology, in order to see if women felt the same way Friedan felt during this time. Sometime after he left she came back to her work, when arriving back to work Friedan got the impression that women were less valued than the men in that specific workplace. This research led to her book, The Feminine Mystique. Betty Friedan had broad ideas, along with beliefs on women’s …show more content…

While Friedan constructed her book, she questioned how it would affect women throughout the twentieth century. During this time Friedan noted that women had no desire for higher education, careers, or political vote. Friedan knew something had to be done, and at that point, she decided to put all of her research into a book to help assist women in their lives. Friedan hoped her book The Feminine Mystique would influence women all around the world to stick up for themselves and their rights. Betty Friedan wanted her book to kick off the talk about feminism, workplace equality, birth control, women’s education, and abortion. By introducing these topics to women, not only will women be able to learn, but also self educate about topics that affect their life on a daily basis. Friedan felt proud that she could possibly help women regain their confidence by reading The Feminine

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