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
Betty Marion White was born on January 17, 1922 in Oak Park, Illinois. She is the only child of Horace and Tess White, an electrical engineer and a house wife. At the age of two her and her family moved to Los Angeles. Betty White graduated from Beverly Hills High School California, in 1939 at 17. Betty started modeling they same year she graduated. She first did various radio shows in the 40s. But her first TV show was on Hollywood in Television in 1949. Whites first produced television show was Life with Elizabeth. "I was one of the first women producers in Hollywood."
The National Organization for Women’s 1966 Statement of Purpose was written by Betty Friedan, whose published book “The Feminist Mystique” in 1963 have made a big impact on American women at that time. This source is effective in using the rhetorical strategies such as ethos, pathos, and logos to convince the public to take action to help women can be treated more equally and can take part in any aspects of society, especially their privileges and responsibilities should be fair and equal in compare with men.
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
The depression in the 1930s and United States’ entry into World War II brought the new wave of nationalism. As the American women began to participate in the industries by taking jobs in factories and offices, new ideas of liberty and independence began to emerge. Women started to question what they should and could do. As the sense of dissatisfaction among women grew rapidly, feminists became active in fighting against the sex discrimination in all areas of society. Ultimately, the release of The Feminine Mystique in the early 1960, Betty Friedan’s work revealing women’s grievance toward their “perfect family life” caught attention of women across the country. The ideology of perfect housewife began to shift as the American women began to seek for the meaning of their marriages and their position in society, which led to the cultural shift towards feminism in the 1960s.
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
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.
One would have to be a fool to believe that men and women have always been or even are equal. Only in the past century have women been allowed to vote and 50 years since women of color could vote. Even today, women and men are held to different standards. Betty Friedan (1921-2006) was a feminist that was not only an author, but also, the first president of an organization known as the National Organization for Women. She is well-known for her work "The Feminine Manifesto", and she is the author of the article "The Importance of Work". Betty Friedan was a feminist during the height of the women's rights movement, so it is not surprising in the least that her article hit on women's rights. "The Importance
Written for the average American housewife, author Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique is a true feminist novel. The piece of work was published in 1963, almost two decades after the end of WWII, at a time when a woman’s expected role was to be a housewife and a mother. It was during the war, however, that it was seen as socially acceptable, and even patriotic, for a woman to work and have a career outside of the home, being that the men were away at combat. With the demand of women in the workforce at an all time high, images of strong, ambitious, working women emerged throughout the media and press.
“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
The 1964 played an important role in history. This was the year that The Beatles took over America by storm and Beatlemania release a series of number one hits. 1964 was not only a year of the greatest music of the century, but also of tragedy, lost and war. Such events include the investigation of John F. Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, and the war on poverty. This year had major events in business and economy, sports, arts and entertainment it became an important piece of history alike other years.
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...
The idealized American housewife of the 60's radiated happiness, "freed by science and labor-saving appliances from the drudgery, the dangers of childbirth and the illnesses of her grandmother...healthy, beautiful, educated, concerned only about her husband, her children, her home," wrote Betty Friedan in "The Problem That Has No Name" (463). Women were portrayed as being "freed," yet it was from this mold that liberated women attempted to free themselves. Many of these same women took part in the women's liberation movement that erupted in the 60's, fueled by their involvement in the civil rights movement. Liberated women were more than just members of the women's liberation movement, however. Different characteristics distinguished the two concepts from one another.
To get the answer to her question, she began to survey women of Smith College. Her findings lead to the writing of her first book, The Feminine Mystique. The book uses other women’s personal experiences along with her own experiences to describes the idea behind being a feminist. “At every step of the way, the feminists had to fight the conception that they were violating the God-given nature of woman… The image of the feminists as inhuman, fiery man-eater, whether expressed as an offense against God or in the modern terms of sexual perversion, is not unlike the stereotype of the Negro as a primitive animal or the union member as an anarchist” (86-87). That image of women that has been created by society and the same idea applies to race and how it is something that is so prone to society about things no one can change. Feminists were the ones who were able to fight for their rights even though some may believe that isn't what women are made to be but Betty Friedan did, which motivated her to fight for women’s rights in the second wave feminist movement. She was able to accomplish helping more women fight for their rights and set the ground for the women fighting
illuminated her disparity of being a woman in a man's world. As one reads her
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