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 …show more content…
At the time women did not voice their opinions, but Betty Friedan was one who came out of her comfort zone and stood up for what she believed in for women’s rights. She could not just sit back and not do anything about it. Friedan did not understand why women lived the traditional lifestyle which was to marry a man, have children, and be a homemaker. Women still do this day want all of that, but women either choose to do so later on in life or not at all. Many people might found it wrong to get married or have children later on in life, but it is quite the norm today. If it was not for Betty Friedan speaking up, women would continue to try to be the perfect housewife. It is the norm today to finish college, and then decide to get married and/ or have children. It is good to know that many women can have the opportunity to do and be able to do whatever they want to do, especially to their own bodies. However, Friedan was fortunate enough to have a mother who wanted her to come out of her comfort zone and to be able to be a change in the world. Friedan’s mother was once a reporter until she met Betty’s father and had to end her career so she can be the perfect housewife. Like mother, like daughter, Freidan also took on the same career as her mother after she attended junior high school. Many women were lucky enough to go to college, and Friedan was one of the many women who were able to go. Friedan has changed …show more content…
The first time Friedan got pregnant she was maternity leave and out for a while however, when she got pregnant again they fired her because they did not want her to be out that long. Still to do this day many people do not want to hire women because they are a female and do get pregnant. Although women do have maternity leave, however, people still to do this day get fired. As a society, we need to change this such as Betty Friedan has once changed the mindsets of both men and women, but yet today we are still fighting for the equal amount of higher ranking jobs and it is not because guys are smarter than girls, it because we let society rule our world. Freidan wanted women to succeed and be able to make progress in their life and to find life enjoyable, which everyone should. After Friedan stepped down from the National Organization of Women, she organized The Strike for Equality which was about providing equal opportunity for all women, it was the 19th amendment that entitled women to do. It helped support the Women’s Movement and recognized by both men and women. The Women’s Movement occurred because of Betty Friedan in which she wrote “The Feminine Mystique”, but also many other women. The income between men make is still significantly more than women, women are paid less than men, which is a horrible outcome. Women make seventy-seven cents for every
Feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights based on the equality of the sexes. However, Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan did not agree that this definition was concrete, and it is essential to know who these women are because they were the start of the women's movement. They created feminism and equality, but each approached this idea differently. Steinem defined feminism to be an advocacy for women to become better than men. While Friedan viewed feminism to have never existed because it should have been a general human rights movement . Their ideas of feminism were split because of how they were raised and the predicaments they faced while growing up. This lead to Friedan’s belief that the National Organization for Women (NOW) had to focus
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
In Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan wrote about women's inequality from men to women's equality to men. She also wrote about women accepting the inequality to women fighting for equality. Friedan comes across to me as a woman with strong beliefs who puts a lot of effort and information in her book. I wasn't aware that this book would give such an extreme amount of information. Her writing style proves that she has been in a feminist movement. Her writing style shows she has a passion for every word she put into this book. She also writes in a way that makes a person interested in what her beliefs are. Friedan has a mass amount of information to prove every point she has. I believe that Feminine Mystique is probably her favorite work to write about. Her writing style proves each point she responds to.
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
“A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, ‘Who am I, and what do I want our of life?’ She must not feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of her husband and children.”(The Associated Press 1) When Betty Friedan proposed this idea in her book, The Feminine Mystique, she sparked the controversy surrounding one of the most significant but inconspicuous issues in post World War II American society. Americans sought to alleviate the trauma from the war by devoting their time to raising a family, which led to a major increase in birth rate between the years of 1946 and 1964, confining women to raising their many children. Any woman who pursued a career was referred to as unattractive and envious of men (“Women at Work After World War II” 1). Increasingly, women felt jaded and
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.
First of all, Betty Friedan was born on February 4, 1921. “Friedan was a writer, feminist and women’s rights activist” (“Betty Friedan Biography”). Friedan fought for women rights; she believed that every woman should not stay at home all day and should go out and seek new opportunities
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.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W.H. Norton & Company, Inc., 1963. Rpt. in Bloom, 461-467.
Betty Friedan was an author, activist, founder, and first president of The National Organization of Women. Friedan wrote the The Feminine Mystique in 1963, which became her personal manifesto about the inequalities which plagued society during that time. The Feminine Mystique set off an immense magnitude reaction which created the second wave of feminism in the United States of America. The Feminine Mystique is about Friedan’s views on the inequality of women within society and the search for the personal identities of the Americans.
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
This is due to her enormous involvement in protests, activism, and fights for equality. For example, according to Thoughtco.com, they said "In 1970, Friedan led in organizing the Women's Strike for Equality on the 50th anniversary of winning the vote for women." The Women's Strike for Equality was a national embodiment of women's rights. The National Organization for Women (NOW) organized the strike and their president [at the time] was Betty Friedan. She commenced the protest by requesting that women around the nation to stop working for the day to draw attention to the ongoing problem: the gender wage gap. The gender wage gap is the obstacle in many women's lives that separates their pay by men's pay by 20 cent. However, that is only in the present. In the 1970s, women earned 59 cent to every dollar made by men. With Friedan's leadership skills and her liberal activism flowing through her veins, this proves her heroism by revealing that she was one of the ideal leaders for the feminist and women's right movement of her
Freidan recognized a paradigm shift. She realized that break through the age-old definition of woman only in sexual relation to man—wife, mother, sex object, housewife—never as a person defining herself by her own actions in society, was in fact a paradigm shift. Friedan stated, “What I sense is the need for a paradigm shift beyond feminism, beyond sexual politics, beyond identity politics altogether”. (Friedan 1997) A new paradigm for women and men. Friend was a feminist, and by that, it did not mean she hated men, but just knew there was a change in our society and in fact there was. What happened in the paradigm was once the women were making some progress because the men were at war, and when the men came back the men took over all jobs.
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...
History has taught us that human nature is about judgement and ignorance. Betty Friedan is one influential person that has left a lasting legacy due to the second-wave feminism she introduced. Thanks to her, women had the courage to say “Yes, I can” and choose to follow their dreams without the pressure. Society had forced women to be limited in their options, but Betty Friedan took the challenge and broke society for a time being to make a path for women and their journey’s. She was very legendary and had many influences on how modern day women live. She is a hero and deserves a holiday for all her hard work and dedication to make the world a better place for women’s