The Role Of Women: The National Organization For Women

Even after the Civil Rights Movement happened in the United States women were still subjected to discrimination based on their sex. This was a problematic barrier that allowed gender inequality to remain and as a result fewer women were able to seek higher education and employment standards. The National Organization for Women argued that change needed to come to America and that it was time for women to be seen as complete equals to men. On behalf of the National Organization for Women (NOW) Betty Friedan wrote the document the Statement of Purpose and argued that women were human beings and therefore they ought to be treated equally and should have the same economic, social and political rights as men and not be excluded because of their

She argued that in order to help make ends meet in her family she had to contribute to the household income. There were points where she was making more money per week than her husband, while this allowed for them to pay the bills it also caused resentment from her husband and the two were constantly fighting, sometimes these quarrels escalated to the point of violence. Betty Friedan admitted that her husband starting beating her and it become a common occurrence for her to appear on television shows with makeup coving a black eye (Life So Far 145). This demonstrated how in some circumstances men were uncomfortable with successful career women; the workplace was still considered to be a man’s domain and women were typically subjected to lower jobs. The Statement of Purpose documents the organizations leaders awareness of the economic inequalities that women faced as they occupied the bottom of the employment scale and in addition the obstacles women faced when attempting to seek higher education (Governing Now 25). NOW rejected certain societal expectations, such has a women’s role as a housewife, because it reinforced gender traditional roles; instead the organization was not shy in stating what had to be done for an egalitarian culture demonstrating that change could and should occur. In order to ensure that progress was made NOW needed to be

The document was written to prove how serious the issue of unequal treatment was and served as a guide and stated all of NOW’s beliefs and intentions. NOW argued that, “women were underrepresented in every position and were losing ground… the statement called for equal opportunity and the end of job discrimination for women” (Life So Far 177). NOW sought to ensure that women were equally represented in all aspects of society and challenged gender traditional roles in the process. The organization campaigned hard to ensure that women’s rights were granted to them and that they were given opportunities for future