...Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique Angelina C. Cosentino JRNL B1 Media and Society – Professor Garcia April 9th 2014 In 1957, Friedan was asked to conduct a survey of her former Smith College classmates for their 15th anniversary reunion; the results, in which she found that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives, prompted her to begin research for The Feminine Mystique, conducting interviews with other suburban housewives, as well as researching psychology, media, and advertising. She originally intended to publish an article on the topic, not a book, but no magazine would publish her article. 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 as a woman with strong beliefs that filled her book with a lot of effort and information. Her writing style proves that she has been in a feminist movement and that 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. She once stated that “Feminine Mystique” was her favorite work to write about. Her writing style proves each point she responds to. In Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan is attempting to persuade the reader to understand what she is trying to say. She wants people to know exactly what occurred...
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...Potter 1 Rebecca Potter Gray Section 4975 12 May 2015 Primary Source Analysis on The Feminine Mystique The Feminine Mystique is the title of a book written by Betty Friedan who has also founded The National Organization for Women (NOW) to help US women gain equal rights. She describes the "Feminine Mystique" as the heightened awareness of the expectations of women and how each woman has to fit a certain role as a little girl, an uneducated and unemployed teenager, and finally as a wife and mother who is happy to clean the house and cook things all day. After World War II, a lot of women's organizations began to appear with the goal of bringing the issues of equal rights into the limelight. The Feminine Mystique also seems to come from her determination to locate the deeper causes of the frustration that she and women like her feel. There are countless stereotypes mentioned in the book. The stereotypes even come down to the color of a woman's hair. Many women wish that they could be blonde because that was the ideal hair color. In The Feminine Mystique, Friedan writes that "across America, three out of every ten women dyed their hair blonde " (182). This serves as an example of how there is/was such a push for women to fit a certain mold which is portrayed as the role of women. Blacks were naturally excluded from the notion of ideal women and they suffered additional discrimination which was even greater than that which the white women suffered from. In addition...
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...whole think? While most of the men were off fighting in the war, women were the only ones left to the work the men had left behind. Propaganda at one time discouraged women from competing with men for jobs, but when all the men went to war, women were then encouraged to join the workforce. These women felt they were greatly contributing to their country and families. While their husbands were earning low military pay, the working women were earning an additional income to help their families. Society believed that women should contribute to the war as much they could to help their men survive overseas. 3) What role did mass media play during the 1950s and 1960s in regard to supporting or undermining the “feminine mystique”? At first, the media undermined the feminine mystique. In magazines (edited by women) they showed women who had careers and who made their own way and had goals. That changed when men started coming home from the war. These men wanted a comfortable domestic lifestyle with their wives working at home. They became the editors of the magazines, and started portraying women as loving housewives...
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...Betty Friedan – The Mother of Feminism Betty Friedan was born as Bettye Goldstein. She was born in Peoria, Illinois on February 4, 1921. Harry Goldstein, her father, emigrated from Russia in the 1880s in which he built himself a successful jewelry business in the United States (Parry, 2010). Miriam Horwitz, his wife and her mother, was the daughter of Hungarian Jewish immigrants, who actually was unable to attend Smith College due to her parents’ refusal (Parry, 2010). At the fact that her mother was not able to complete her dream of school and education, her mother would continually push for her to do well in her academics because she knew the potential her daughter had. However, even though she saw her potential, she knew that her daughter’s Jewish upbringing would be her hindrance, but she continued for her to strive on and was not ready to give up and surrender to how things were. Therefore, Betty’s rebuttal was always there from the beginning. Her Jewish upbringing caused Betty to experience many blunders along her way. In her high school located in Peoria, Illinois, Jews were not welcome in sororities or fraternities, which had truly played a detrimental effect on her because they played a big role at her school (Selle, 1998). Even though her academic successes were stellar, she was continually shunned upon due to her ethnicity and background. Not only was Betty a spectacular student, but also she was also a writer, poet, and the founder of a literary (Selle, 1998). But...
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...as sexual relationships, men decided when, where and how. When courageous women were bold enough to speak out about being the inferior gender, and developing organizations that addressed the issue, as well as writing books about it, the idea of women finally having more freedom was appealing and became popular very quick. Organizations were formed promoting Women's liberation, and some are still in existence today. National Organization for Women, commonly known as NOW, was founded in 1966 and is still in existence today. This organization's motto was "to take action, to achieve equality of women." One of the co-founders of the organization was a lady named Betty Friedan. Ms. Friedan was the author of a book called The Feminine Mystique (A.W. 1976). Ms. Friedan was a woman that was not afraid to voice her opinion on anything for jobs to sex, and these are things that women had wanted to do for years, but just did not know how. Because of her brazen and bold conversations, she instantly became famous, and when interviewed by the New York Times, she told them she received thousands of letters from women, basically saying they felt the same way she did about being confined to conventional roles, instead of being able to work and do other things. She also desired to write other books to inspire women, but got caught up in the NOW movement and did not have the time. The 1960s and 1970s were the...
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...1) Describe the post-WWII frustrations felt by women such as Betty Friedan. 2) During the era of “Rosie the Riveter”, what gains did women make in the workforce? How did these women feel about themselves and their contributions? What did society as a whole think? 3) What role did mass media play during the 1950s and 1960s in regard to supporting or undermining the “feminine mystique”? 4) Which television heroine -- Alice, Lucy, or Miss Brooks -- came the closest to TRULY overcoming the feminine mystique, and elaborate on that heroine’s situation and relationship to the men in her life. 1)Describe the post-WWII frustrations felt by women such as Betty Friedan Betty Friedan and other women were frustrated about their roles as women in society and in the household. Many women weren’t pleased being the typical housewife, they wanted to be someone and have their own identity. When women started working during WWII they found the heroine they wanted for themselves. After the war, most women stopped working and went back to being housewives. Betty Friedan was frustrated at this and didn’t comprehend why women stopped working. 2) During the era of “Rosie the Riveter”, what gains did women make in the workforce? How did these women feel about themselves and their contributions? What did society as a whole think? While most of the men were out in the field battling war, women were the only ones left to the do the work the men had left without employment. Advertising at one...
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...husbands were away. In the Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan felt unhappy just like the women. She felt that women were only encouraged to be housewives and they wanted more than that. Physically and mentally the women were a wreck because they had to support there family psychically and mentally as well as dealing with their own depression and situations at home. During the Rosie the Riverter era women worked in factories which was viewed as a more masculine job. The women gained income from working in the factories and were able to support their family while their husband was away. The women felt good about their contributions because they felt equal now to men because they can work and do the same job any men would do. They were not depressed any more and when their husband would return from the war they were doing financially alright rather than struggling and feeling saddened until their arrival. Society's opinion towards women working masculine jobs viewed by some as something temporarily and when the husband's returned from the war it would be over and the women can just go back to being house wives and taking care of the children. But others viewed what the women was doing as normal and good for them some said "If a women can you use an electric mixer than they can learn to operate a drill." No matter the negative and positive feed back society had on the women's jobs most continued to work in factories. Mass Media's role during the feminine mystique was while the men were...
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...America today is a lot different than centuries ago. One of the most aspects that changed the most in particular is women. Liberty, career, freedom to vote, and freedom of ones’ body are the main points of contrast. In today's society, women are far more liberated than they were hundreds of years ago, when compared to the concept of the conservative women in the 1800’s. Throughout history, the fate of women has been greatly centered on domestic work. Women remained indoors, producing clothing, preparing and preserving food, and doing other, what would be called today, “house work”. Society has generally figured that women should be responsible for work in the home over anything else. Such a strongly embedded mindset has affected the activities in which women have been able to participate. Education and work outside of the home have been areas that many women have been unable to access in society because social norms have dictated that women should focus on domestic work. However, these women have deviated outside the norms of society. Through their dedication and determination, they have changed the way women are perceived – making them all incredible and extraordinary women who shaped America. Over the years women have been pushing for the same equality as men. Women are typically looked down upon and are ignored when it comes to standing up for their rights. In the 1960s an organization called the National Organization for Women was established. This main focus...
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...force to help provide for their families. One year later, Congress amended the Civil Rights Act and extended equal rights to women. This gave women the same rights that had been extended to black men. This was also a great achievement. Later in 1966, the National Organization for Women or NOW was created. This organization has been influential in the feminize movement and is still around today. This organization was created by Betty Friedan and other feminists. Friedan was journalists who traveled to interview women that graduated from her college. Her findings were that these women were playing the role they were given as house wives and mothers, despite the fact that they were miserable and unhappy. With these findings she wrote The Feminine Mystique. I feel that the changes that have been made for the rights of women have made life better. I cannot imagine being treated poorly because of my gender. In today’s society most of the population is on board with equal...
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...A Women’s Civil Right The speech ”A Women’s Civil Right” was written in 1969 and the feminist author Betty Friedan delivered it. Betty Friedan was a proponent of the modern women’s movement and claimed that women in 1969 and onwards should not be trapped in the stereotypical housewife role. Friedan was convinces that social barriers in the society kept women imprisoned in “the housewife trap”. She wanted women to have better career opportunities, introduce equality with men and to eliminate the illusion of “the happy housewife”. This specific speech announces that abortion should be a part of a women’s civil right. Betty Friedan singles out women to be the invisible minority in America. The invisible women in the American society are the ones who take an active share in the important resolution of the government and not the women who take care of the domestic duties. Friedan compares the invisibility of forward-looking women to the Afro-American permanent residents in America. For many years, the Afro-American people in the U.S. have been the invisible section of the population in the Southern states. Racial segregation in America became a crucial part of life until the segregation legally ended in 1964 because of the Civil Rights Act. The blacks were in those days invisible according to their voting rights. The voting rights of blacks were systematically restricted because the black’s voting papers did not manage to be registered. Many Afro-American were killed because...
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...up a journalist and, following her re-entry into the movement, published many books and articles pertaining to the women’s rights movement. Friedan’s arguably most famous work was The Feminine Mystique, which is credited with driving women to fight for their beliefs and rights. The book also, however, created controversy due to a questionable statement made by Friedan, despite her later revoking the statement. This sentence stated that “the women who ‘adjust’ as housewives, who grow up wanting to be ‘just a housewife’, are in as much danger as the millions who walked to their own death in the concentration camps” (Fermaglich). As much as this statement raised controversy, it also attracted great attention to the movement from Jews and Jew-supporters, especially due to Friedan’s own Jewish background. Friedan herself believed that “in a certain sense, [her] experience as a Jew informed [...] a lot of the insights that [she] applied to women, and the passion that [she] applied to the situation of women” (Fermaglich). However, Friedan rarely mentioned her Jewish background, showing that she was able to communicate her message clearly without relying on sympathy or support from fellow people of Jewish background. The Feminine Mystique was able to captivate America all by itself. The Feminine Mystique is most famous for exploring “the idea of women finding personal fulfillment outside of their traditional roles” (Biography.com Editors). Friedan presented the novel from the perspective...
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...Blade: Gender Stereotype Often times, the word “gender discrimination” brings out the image as women being the victims and men as the attackers. Such notion is proven by the simple fact that the word “feminism” is known and used every day while “masculinism” is not. In this context, Betty Friedan, author of the Feminine Mystique, raises question on stereotypes based on gender. She fiercely argues for the housewives whose lives are mainly comprised of being mothers and housewives. Freidan expresses her central issue by asking the question “these women have no dreams of career, no visions of a world larger than the home; their only ambition, their only dream is realized [as mothers and housewives]. But were they fulfilled women?” (Friedan, 225). Friedan’s text is a representation of people’s perception of gender discrimination—women kept in households with their world revolving around domestic matters rather than the world outside of their homes. Although it is true that women did and still do suffer these tilted standards of society, a more holistic view should be sought in terms of acknowledging the suffering of both genders. Betty Friedan, in her writing The Feminine Mystique, identifies how gender stereotypes have confined women by examining the white, American, middle-class housewives in the suburbs. The time frame is limited to the late 1960’s, a period of time after the Second World War during which many soldiers yearned to return to the suburbs to find a peaceful living environment...
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...Renown Women’s Rights activist Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique went a long way towards opening the door for women’s rights. In a later article, Television and the Feminine Mystique, she eloquently described the problems with the media’s portrayal of women: If women are the one majority in America that resembles an oppressed minority, it's not because of actual deprivation of right, or opportunity, or human dignity, but simply because of that self-ridiculing image—the mystique of the mindless female, the passive housewife, which keeps girls and women from using their rights and opportunities and taking their own lives seriously, in time. (Friedan qtd. in “Television and the Feminine Mystique”...
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...19th Amendment, it did not seem to affect women's lack of power and opportunity: “Deep cultural changes were altering the role of women in American society. More females than ever were entering the paid workforce, and this increased the dissatisfaction among women regarding huge gender disparities in pay…” (Walsh). Betty Friedan a female author and activist published her most notable book in 1963 The Feminine Mystique that caused a widespread for women to fight for their own independent lives, which was known as second- wave feminism that sparked the Women's Liberation Movement. In her last book Life So...
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...ambience of liberalisation. Upon inception, it is vital to highlight one can account different reasons for the emergence of the movement in Britain and America, as different domestic situations led to different reasons for the emergence of a more radical form of feminism. This essay, together with a multiplicity of historians, will consider the importance of World War II and the Civil Rights Movement, and the impact they had on the emergence of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Linked to this is the ever apparent discrimination women faced and increasing desires to change this, coupled with developments of new opportunities, demonstrated by the aforementioned world events. Additionally, the impact of literature such as Betty Friedan’s, The Feminine Mystique, needs to be considered. Whilst all the factors play an important role in contributing to the emergence, it will be concluded that the increased confidence especially politically, demonstrated by the factors mentioned, by women was ultimately responsible for the emergence of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the late 1960’s. It has been argued that, predominantly in Britain, the Second World War gave women the idea of greater freedom. In the aftermath of the Second...
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