I take my title from the first Chapter of the late Betty Friedan's book , The Feminine Mystique. The Problem That has No Name. Where, Ms. Friedan was writing and to who, was not the adolescents of that age, the age of Second Wave feminism, but to the adult women, who struggled with the mundane, but required and obligated task of being a housewife. Which at that point in honor of Friedan, was the best place to start. Yes there were woman suffering, millions of women were “afraid to ask even herself the silent question- “Is this all?” ( Friedan, p. 11). “Women were taught to pity the neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy women who wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents.” ( p. 11) Getting to the heart of the matter was Friedan’s main point and object, she was teaching the adult women that this wasn’t all, that there was a fight to fight, and they had to start it. They knew the feelings that they had inside, they felt them everyday, sitting at their Formica table-tops, reading this small paperback, they knew what she said was true, and it was only with them that the fight for freedom, was going to begin. But now we fast forward, forty years, and the problem that had no name now does. We’ve infiltrated the career world, and while there is still progress to be made there, and it will be made, we have another whole demographic we’ve overlooked. We haven’t taught our girls, we’ve neglected telling them that being smart important and okay, and more important than their looks. We as a society plus our own educational system which I evaluate both here today, have neglected, teaching girls that they too have a place in this fight, and that they are just as important today, as Betty Friedan’s housewife in 1963.
I take my information, mo...
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...iety feelings, and 1 male. I've talked 4 girls out of killing themselves, and been on call 24/7 suicide watch for 5 of them. I've never done so for the boys. You might think it’s because I don’t relate to the boys, as much, I don’t understand them because I am a girl, so obviously the girls come to me. It’s not even about that, I talk to all my boys. I check in on everyone, every month. I talk to the boys, they just don’t have the same feelings the girls do. They aren't bombarded with the things that girls are on a daily basis, that tells girl “You aren't good enough.”
I don’t have a solution for the whole of the worlds female adolescents. I don’t. No one does. But I do pledge to change the lives of these girls everyday. I do pledge to change the lives of my own children when I have them. I do pledge to take one person at a time and change their life for the good.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, men are more likely to drink in excess than women, leading to “higher rates of alcohol-related deaths and hospitalizations.” Every day, 3 or more boys commit suicide. For boys, suicide is the third leading cause of death. Studies have shown that “males take their own lives at nearly four times the rate of females and comprise approximately 80 percent of all suicides and suicide attempts among women are estimated to be three to four times higher than that of their male counterparts.” Boys and men who hide behind a mask everyday have a lot of emotions bottled up that need to be released, which can lead them to be aggressive or violent.
The biggest irony of this book is not that the women described here fail, or remain at the bottom--sex discrimination within societal structure has already been doing that since the beginning of time. The most
Betty Friedan is the author of the famous book, which credited the beginning of a second –wave feminism in the United States. Friedan’s book begins with describing “the problem that has no name” to women who had everything, but were unhappy, depress and felt like they had nothing. Women are expected to be happy by buying things, a new refrigerator, house, best-selling coffee, having the right make-up, clothes and shoes, this is what the Feminine Mystique symbolized. Something that women wanted but can never have. Furthermore, society in present day is full of advertisements everywhere we go in TV, books and on the radio. The young generation as well as adults get trap in a fantasy world full of perfection. Women always want to have a thin waist, the most expensive make-up and purses, it’s all based on stereotypes. In her book, Friedan mentions that the average age of marriage was decreasing compared to increasing birthrate of women. Moreover, Friedan has been nit-pick at for focusing on the middle-class women and for prejudice against
Although this is very deep rooted, women in today’s society are making advancements, in part because of the efforts of Betty Friedan. Friedan wrote the Feminist Mystique, a book about women's roles in society in the 1950's. This book is often reviered as the most influential piece of women's rights which sparked the movement for change. In 1966, Friedan cofounded a organization called NOW, and was named the presid...
According to Microsoft Research, “By 2018, there will be 1.4 million open technology jobs in the U.S. and, at the current rate of students graduating with degrees in computer science, only 29% of applicants will be women.” The fight for women has been going on for more than 100 years and women today continue to face discrimination in daily lives. An important person in fighting for women’s rights was Betty Friedan, who was born on February 4, 1921 in Peoria, Illinois. A writer, feminist, and women’s rights activist published her book The Feminine Mystique in 1963 that began her journey of fighting for women’s rights. The idea behind the book Race presents important pillars that apply
Betty Friedan wrote many books, however, “It Changed My Life”, “The Second Stage”, and “Beyond Gender” will be mentioned in my paper. Friedan fought for many things such as the perspective of the change in school, home, and workplace, women’s rights, and women’s right to choose whether it is how they want to live their life or how they take care of their bodies such as abortion. The mindsets of women from her novels between the1960s to the 1980s changed drastically, from the time of women having plenty of free time, to women not having enough free time. Many women during this era, did not want to be like their mothers, and Betty Friedan was one of them. Women play such an important role in our society that they should be given everything a
Feminism is a word that is stock-full of implications, and has many misconceptions. Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti attempts to give a broad overview of what feminism is, and how you should feel about it (hint: it’s positively). The book is directed primarily towards the younger generation, and talks about a variety of issues relevant to the feminist movement today and in history. The weaknesses of the book include the casual writing, the assumptions Valenti makes, and the contradictory statements that are consistently made. The strengths include providing an entertaining, broad overview of feminism, and discussing ways to contribute to gender equality. Overall, the book is more likely to be a positive experience for high-schoolers that identify as women then college-aged individuals looking for a critical analysis of issues society faces in regards to gender inequality.
“There is a double standard here that shapes our perceptions of men and women in ways that support patriarchy as a system. What is culturally valued is associated with masculinity and maleness and what is devalued is associated with femininity and femaleness, regardless of the reality of men’s and women’s lives”,( Johnson 64). In the movie Mona Lisa Smile, Betty’s mother was pressurizing Betty to make her husband read a poem at the wedding not just to act like he enjoyed the marriage but mainly because it was a tradition for men. When Betty said she didn’t care about it, her mother refused and still insisted that she should do it. Women are looked down upon when it comes to the assignment of gender roles and this is because of labels that the society has placed on the female gender. In a home, the father is always the head of the home, providing food and clothing for every family member but there are some women who like to be independent and would also love to work and make money and cater for the family. In the 19th century, women were told they were home makers and were not allowed to endeavor further in higher educational studies. Wellesley College was a college built to raise future wives and not future leaders meaning that society had already placed women below the ladder without any intention or thoughts of them climbing back
During post-war-era America women were feeling something very similar to what men are feeling now. As quoted in Kanwal’s article Betty Friedan defined women's unhappiness as ''the problem that has no name." She wrote, "... many American women were unhappy and did not know why". In her book Fraterrigo talks about how men q...
Over time, a women’s identity has been seen as powerless and incompetent to achieve anything. This image of women is being created at a young age at young age. For instance, little
Throughout the texts we have read in English thus far have been feminist issues. Such issues range from how the author published the book to direct, open statements concerning feminist matters. The different ways to present feminist issues is even directly spoken of in one of the essays we read and discussed. The less obvious of these feminist critiques is found buried within the texts, however, and must be read carefully to understand their full meaning- or to even see them.
Feminine Mystique manifests Friedan’s thoughts on the compromise of women’s roles post-World War II and how it led to the detriment of feminism, the exposition of the unspoken and unnamed frustrations shared by a consensus of women, and the deficient system of gender-based functionalism and its setbacks. All of the strong condemnation and criticism on these various facets led to the gradual change of the way women viewed their roles and identities.
Thus Friedan’s persona and political positions she favored seemed to be entirely of a piece with her liberal feminism. The non-inclusion of women of color and of lower working classes agree with its goals such as; the right to an abortion and equality in job hiring. However, most women of color dismiss the label of feminism because the movement had largely focused on the concerns of the middle class white women. Attempts to address the racism of the feminist movement have largely been token efforts without lasting effects. Many young women of color still feel alienated from a mainstream feminism that doesn’t explicitly address race (Disch, 639). Feminism in the United States has stagnated in part because it has largely neglected a class and race analysis. Feminism can’t survive by helping certain women climb the corporate latter while ignoring women on welfare. Feminism has to recruit beyond just the college
As women, those of us who identify as feminists have rebelled against the status quo and redefined what it means to be a strong and powerful woman. But at what cost do these advances come with?... ... middle of paper ... ... Retrieved April 12, 2014, from http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/genwom/whatisfem.htm Bidgood, J. 2014, April 8 -.
Hooks begins by stating that Feminism in the United States did not emerge as a result of victimized, underprivileged women who faced sexist oppression so much so they have internalized it , but in fact by bourgeois upper-class white women whose idea's of equality were far different. She begins this criticism with Betty Friedan, a leading figure in the women's movement and the author of the classic The Feminine Mystique claiming that the book ignored the difficulty and even the existence of non-white, poor women with the assumption that her concerns were harmonious wi...