Free For All Project by Jessica Haney

Betty Freidan's Impact in the 60s.

yhaneyje — 2024-11-30 20:41:46 UTC

1950s

yhaneyje — 2024-11-30 21:01:53 UTC

"In the 1950s, women felt tremendous societal pressure to focus their aspirations on a wedding ring" (The Pill). This was the sad reality for women in the 50s. They we taught to think that this is what they were good for: to be wives and to take care of their family via housework. They couldn't have their own credit card, they couldn't hold "higher level" jobs because it was considered men's work. They couldn't even take oral contraception without their husbands' permission. Women were considered as meek and fragile.

Betty Freidan in the 1950s.

yhaneyje — 2024-11-30 21:08:11 UTC

In 1947 Betty married Carl Freidan and had 3 children with him. They moved to a suburban area where Betty became a housewife. Carl was often accused of domestic violence against Betty during their marriage. She felt just as hopeless as other women who felt as if they were missing out on opportunities and life by being a housewife (Michals 2017).

Research for Feminine Mystique.

yhaneyje — 2024-11-30 21:16:25 UTC

In When Everything Changed, it talks about how Betty was writing an article for McCall's, where she was supposed to write about how college for women is about prepping them for a housewife life. She asked her questions to fellow graduates at her 15th year reunion. "The survey responses showed Freidan that a number of her peers were slowly going crazy in their well-appointed homes, just as she felt she had been doing" (Collins 58). Women were not fulfilled with the lives they were living. Going stir crazy was the norm for this time. This research was later used to write The Feminine Mystique.

Betty Freidan's Life

yhaneyje — 2024-11-30 21:41:53 UTC

She was born in the 1920's to a Russian immigrant. During college she studied psychology at Smith college. From there she engaged in many political and journalism pursuits. In 1947 she married and had children and started to live a housewife life. During that time she spent 5 years interviewing women from all over about their feelings on their lives. She devoted her later life to activism and feminist pursuits. "Freidan helped found the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws...organized Women's Strike for Equality... was a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus" (Michals 2017).

The Feminine Mystique.

yhaneyje — 2024-11-30 22:02:27 UTC

The Feminine Mystique was published on February 19, 1963. This book was widely received as a saving grace for women who were feeling the exact same way that Freidan talked about in the book. However, women of color didn't find it as appealing. Furthermore, feminists of color... found Friedan’s manifesto both racist and classist..." (Churchill 2024).

Impactful Quotes

yhaneyje — 2024-11-30 22:12:07 UTC

"Over and over women heard in voices of tradition and of Freudian sophistication that they could desire no greater destiny than to glory in their own femininity" (Freidan 15).
"They learned that truly feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political rights..."(Freidan 16).
"A young wife in a Long Island development said: I seem to sleep so much. I don't know why I should be so tired. This house isn't nearly so hard to clean as the cold-water flat we had when I was working. The children are at school all day. It's not the work. I just don't feel alive" (Freidan 22).
"Part of the strange newness of the problem is that it cannot be understood in terms of the age-old material problems of man: poverty, sickness, hunger, cold. The women who suffer this problem have a hunger that food cannot fill" (Freidan 26).

Women's Liberation

yhaneyje — 2024-11-30 22:26:25 UTC

June 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed. The members pushed for laws to be made about equality and rights for women. Eventually some success was being made from the movement. "With the eventual backing of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, women gained access to jobs in every corner of the U.S"(Burkett ). It only went up from there.

Works Cited

yhaneyje — 2024-11-30 22:53:03 UTC

Michals, Edited by Debra. “Biography: Betty Friedan.” National Women’s History Museum, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/betty-friedan. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
Churchill, Lindsey. "The Feminine Mystique." Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/The-Feminine-Mystique. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
Burkett, Elinor. "Women's rights movement." Encyclopedia Britannica, www. britannica.com/event/women-movement. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
"Mrs. America: "Women's Roles in the 1950s." PBS: The Pill. www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-mrs-america-womens-roles-1950s/. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
Freidan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. W. W Norton, 1963
Collins, Gail. When Everything Changed. Little Brown Company. 2009.