During the 1960’s the middle-class women of America were experiencing discontent and unfulfillment in their lives partially due to the constrictions of tradition patriarchal marriage and this 1960’s phenomenon began to be known as ‘the problem without a name’. Betty Friedan in The Feminist Mystique described the problem as “[The problem] lay buried, unspoken for many years in the mind of the American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered…[Afraid to ask herself] is this all?” (Friedan,15). Friedan’s quote shows that married middle-class women were all going through the same problem and were left questioning what was missing in their lives and their purpose as well. Both Mrs. Robinson in …show more content…
Robinson can not find happiness in her life because her life lacks purpose. During the pivotal scene where Mrs. Robinson and Ben actually have a meaningful conversation in the hotel room, Mrs. Robinson reveals to Ben that she use to be an art major in college (Nichols). That degree would let her have a career and let her have a purpose in life rather than just being another housewife. The normal middle-class women during the 1960’s would not have jobs. In the screenplay of the same scene, Mrs. Robinson reveals to Ben that she goes shopping and reads novels in her free time (Henry, 53). She does menial things in her life and she can not even find happiness in those things. When Ben asks her what novel she is reading she tells him, that she can not remember (Henry, 53). The only thing that seems to bring some sort of purpose to her life is her affair with Ben. Mrs. Robinson has the affair with Ben because she sees a part of herself inside of Ben. Ben is similar to the women of the 1960’s in the way that they know they have a problem, but they can not pinpoint the exact hole in their life. During the opening of the film, the audience can see the darkness of Ben’s eyes while he sitting on the airplane and also by the “The Song of Silence” playing non-diegetically in the background (Audio Commentary) (he’s before sitting). The darkness of Ben’s eyes shows that he lives in darkness and he does not see the light until he meets Elaine (Audio Commentary). The darkness that Ben is surrounded by in the film is also surrounded by Mrs. Robinson (Audio Commentary). The darkness represents the emptiness in her life. Mrs. Robinson is attracted to Ben because he is broken just like her and that brokenness allows for Ben to be easily persuaded into having an affair with Mrs. Robinson. The audience can infer that Mrs. Robinson partakes in the affair because Ben and she are similar people, and having someone that she can connect with makes her life more bearable. Mrs. Robinson
A main theme in this small town’s culture is the issue of gender and the division of roles between the two. Not uncommon for the 1950’s, many women were taught from a young age to find a good man, who could provide for them and a family, settle down and have children – the ideal “happy family.” As Harry states after singing the showstopper “Kids,” “I have the All-American family: A great wife, 2 wonderful kids and a good job.”
May begins by exploring the origins of this "domestic containment" in the 30's and 40's. During the Depression, she argues, two different views of the family competed -- one with two breadwinners who shared tasks and the other with spouses whose roles were sharply differentiated. Yet, despite the many single women glamorized in popular culture of the 1930's, families ultimately came to choose the latter option. Why? For one, according to May, for all its affirmation of the emancipation of women, Hollywood fell short of pointing the way toward a restructured family that would incorporate independent women. (May p.42) Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, for example, are both forced to choose between independence and a happy domestic life - the two cannot be squared. For another, New Deal programs aimed to raise the male employment level, which often meant doing nothing for female employment. And, finally, as historian Ruth Milkman has also noted, the g...
For over centuries, society had established the societal standard of the women. This societal standard pictured the ideal American woman running the household and taking care of the children while her husband provided for the family. However, between 1770 and 1860, this societal standard began to tear at the seams. Throughout this time period, women began to search for a new ideal of American womanhood by questioning and breaking the barriers society had placed upon them.
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
Dating back to the early 20th century, women’s roles in the United States were very limited. In regards to family life, women were expected to cook, clean, and take care of their homes. Men, on the other hand, were in charge of working and providing for the family. Together, these designated roles helped men and women build off of each other to ultimately keep their families in check. As the years progressed, society began to make a greater push to increase women’s rights. As women started receiving greater equality and freedom, their roles began to shift. More women had to opportunity to leave the house and join the workforce. The norm for a married couple slowly began to change as men were no longer expected to individually provide for their
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.
Many middle class and elite women followed the same thinking pattern of most men in the nineteenth century that women should focus on preserving their morality, improving society, and being domestic subservient wives (lecture). This ideal of true womanhood directly conflicted with working class women’s definition of womanhood and the changing work patterns in the United States. Because middle class and elite woman did not view working women as “true women,” these women often ostracized working class women, which caused tension and increased class divisions (lecture). Additionally, this class rift between women most likely contributed to the slow progress of the women’s rights movement that began in the later half of the nineteenth century. As men were reluctant to accept the shifting definitions of womanhood, many middle class and elite women were also hesitant to accept these changes and began to relate to lower class women in a more hostile
It was expected of women to get married, have children, buy a suburban home and do housework. The video, “A Word to the Wives” displays what Betty Friedan calls, “the feminine mystique”. The video presents the dilemma of a woman who is not happy because she does not have the newest house. Her friend has all the new “necessities” in order to successfully complete housework. Women were defined by what they had, not by who they were. Friedan’s research found that despite fulfilling the “feminine mystique”, when women were questioned they realized they were not truly satisfied with their life. The woman in the video would not of been fulfilled by buying a new house, or object. Women were deprived of the need to put their skills and talents to a purpose. The video, “Are You Popular” also shows the expectations of women.. It promotes that appearance, serving others, and rewarding men with “women” gifts such as baking is how to be popular. It condones girls for “parking in cars” but accepts men who do the same thing. Women must earn the approval of men, and men must earn women by doing thing women are “incapable” of. The repression of women in the 50’s is what eventually causes the “outbreak” of feminism in the 60’s. The idolism of the “female mystique” covered the sexism against women in the
Contention (Introduction): At the beginning of the 1950's women faced the expectation that they must become a housewife. Towards the end of the 1960’s, women started to believe that
The antebellum period brought about many changes in American society. One of those changes was the manner in which American households were organized. Robert Max Jackson argues in his account on gender inequality that up to the 1820s a patriarchal ideology predominated the American household giving fathers absolute authority; they would rule their homes as “communal enterprises” in which husband and wife worked together in order to earn a living. However, from the 1820s onwards the economy rapidly expanded as a consequence of the industrial revolution and many men started to work away from home in industrial and commercial firms, leaving their wives at home to carry out the domestic duties. As a result of this “separation of spheres”, these wives, who no longer were under the constant observation and influence of their husbands, gained the new identity of a “true woman” in which they were supposed to “spent their time raising their children and managing their household” (Jackson 199). As Barbara Welter points out, a “Cult of True Womanhood” arose among the middle classes in which “true women” were to hold “the four cardinal virtues of piety, purity, submission and domesticity” (152). This ideology of domesticity, as opposed to the patriarchal ideology, prescribed women’s conduct throughout the nineteenth century.
Warren Farrell is a well educated man who focuses his attention on gender. In his essay “Men as Success Objects,” he writes about gender roles in male-female relationships. He begins, “for thousands of years, marriages were about economic security and survival” (Farrell 185). The key word in that statement is were. This implies the fact that marriage has changed in the last century. He relates the fact that post 1950s, marriage was more about what the male and female were getting out of the relationship rather than just the security of being married. Divorce rates grew and added to the tension of which gender held the supremacy and which role the individuals were supposed to accept. “Inequality in the workplace” covered up all of the conflicts involved with the “inequality in the homeplace”(Farrell). Farrell brings to attention all ...
During World War II, a lot of America women became Rosy the Riveter. When the war ended and the men returned home, they wanted to return to the traditional ways but many women did not want to give up their jobs and the supply of money they were making. This created a huge shift in the role of women in society that is still taking effect today (Griffiths et al., 2015). The traditional gender roles are still believed to work by some functionalists (Shepard, 1993). Famed sociologists Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales believed that “Families… require one adult in an ‘instrumental’ role and another adult in an ‘expressive’ role. The husband-father, who usually assumes the instrumental role, is responsible for family in the occupational, political, and economic situations. In preforming the expressive role, the wife-mother is concerned with maintaining relationships within the family, taking care of children, and providing emotional security for all family members”(pg. 300). Even though this may have worked at one time, many sociologists do not believe with Parsons and Bales; they think that modern society treats people not based on their role, but their abilities. Many sociologists believe that the functionalist perspective is outdated and only explains how gender roles came to be, not what they
Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, explains the mind set of society in the 1960s. She writes that the women of the ‘60s were identified only as creatures looking for “sex, babies, and home” (Friedan 36). She goes on to say “The only passion, the only pursuit, the only goal a woman [was] permitted [was] the pursuit of a man” (Friedan 36). This mind set, this “feminine mystique,” is clearly shown throughout the show Mad Men. The side effect of the feminine mystique hurt all the women of this time. Matthew Weiner shows how this conception of the “ideal woman” hurt all of his lead women. The consequences are shown in the two women who bought into the idea, Betty and Joan, and the one who re...
Achieving roles for women that are as equal as men, before and during the twentieth century, appeared to be inevitable in the United States. Women were limited to domesticity, performing duties that only serve their families as wives, mothers, and diligent daughters. Women were absorbed and accustomed to these standards, oblivious to their worth and capabilities that are above and beyond their set domestic duties. “Groups of women challenged this norm of the twentieth century and exceeded their limited roles as domestic servants by organizing movements whose sole purpose is to achieve equality within a male-dominated society” (Norton
The book was influenced by a questionnaire of two-hundred women at her college who seemed more fulfilled than those who did conform to the “role of women.” She was motivated to tell others that there was a diagnoses to the “problem with no name.” Friedan fought for and accomplished other issues including equal pay, equal job opportunities, and equal roles as parents. Many women at this time “felt impossibly trapped in their bodies and unfulfilled by their expected roles.” She claims “we can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: ‘I want something more than my husband and my children and my home.” Her ideas in her book were speaking to a percentage of the women in society; however, there were certainly women who were content to raise their children, be married, and be housewives. “Women who had once wanted careers were now making careers out of babies,” but not every women felt that way. Friedan targeted the middle-aged educated women while Pankhurst was fighting for the quality of all women, despite age, race, or