The Feminine Mystique Of 1963: An Analysis

The prolonged Cold War and the controversial Vietnam War were only two of the many developments that would rattle the United States during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The continuing protests on the Vietnam War and growing student protests in the United States helped verify that revolution was possible. The new perspectives of the post World War II generation sought to modify a system that had become static. However, the United States was not the only country shaping new social and ideological understandings, other countries around the world also challenged the status quo. The black power protest movements, feminist movements, and gay rights movements protesting inequality in the global society defined 1968 as a revolution watershed. Therefore,

World War II initiated the process of bringing women into the workplace, which eventually brought to light the discrimination they suffered in the labor force.4 American women were segregated into lower paying jobs with no room for advancement or working the same jobs as men, however getting lower pay. In Betty Frieden’s The Feminine Mystique of 1963, she made the case for American women to participate more fully in the workplace and not to shy away from it, so they could realize their own individual potential.4 As an advocate for women’s rights in the United States Frieden believed there needed to be a group to end the inequality. Frieden helped draft the National Organization for Women’s platform in 1966 to gain “true equality for all women” and the “full participation in the mainstream of American society.”5 Other smaller organizations followed and other societies around the world noticed the insurgence of successful feminist movements in the United

The first major protest happened in New York in the summer of 1969 where gay men spontaneously rioted when police attempted to arrest them and close down the LGBT friendly, Stonewall Inn bar.6 The protest was heard around the world and ignited other gay rights activists to unite their efforts to organize a gay liberation movement. The Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists’ Alliance of 1969 provided the ability for more aggressive, radical movements to end the inequality. The GLF intended to create new "social forms and relations" that would be based on "brotherhood, cooperation, human love, and uninhibited sexuality."7 The activists fought for equality between them and those who were straight, and to end the discrimination in the workplace and in society. The end goal for the American gay rights activists was to have society accept them as equals and to be able to have the same opportunities as everyone else, gay rights radicals outside of the United States thought the same