Betty Friedan's The Importance Of Work By Betty Friedan

Scott, Anne Firor. Women in American Life. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. Shi, David E. and Mayer, Holly A. For The Record.

Susan Oliver writes an exceptional biography that describes in detail the life, success, struggles and failures of Betty Friedan. From her childhood as a divergent American-Jew living in Peoria, Illinois to being an outstanding student and writer in school, finding her path as a strong feminist at Smith College, her struggles as a mother and wife to mothering the second feminist movement. Susan Oliver explored all the factors that contributed to Betty Friedan’s strong private and public persona. Betty Friedan, a driving force of the second feminist movement, is barely recognized for the emancipation of women. Mostly known as the author of the Feminine Mystique, Susan Oliver made sure to demonstrate that Betty Friedan was more than a mere

Several social changes in the post-war years opened women to feminism's message. P. 2, The demand for a larger and more skilled labor pool generated by the Cold War, and postwar consumer economy were the driving force cause American society to become more open to feminism’s message. No doubt WW II created the demand for expanded women’s roles in the workplace, Document 1. Having proved their equal abilities during the war, they stood ready willing and able to contribute moving forward. Nevertheless attitudes toward women staying in the workforce after World War II were not favorable.

Wong states that women’s “job used to be no job”(Wong), implying that before the movement of feminism, women didn’t have to work as they do now. She then goes on to state that women should “have done the smart thing, which would have been to continue playing dumb for the next century”(Wong). Before the times of feminism, women were expected to stay at home, however, with the start of the feminist movement, women with the use of their intelligence fought for the right to have equal pay, rather than using their intelligence to do the smart thing and stay at home. Although the concept of working during the start of the feminist movement might have sounded appealing, today women are now expected to work. Wong’s initial controversial statement now allows the audience to imagine what their lives could have been if feminism didn’t happen.

The search of identity is an issue familiar to contemporary society as well as to the society of 1963 when Betty Friedan published her feminist manifesto The Feminine Mystique. The main idea of Friedan 's article, "The Importance of Work," is the question of how individuals can recognize their full capacities and achieve identity. She argues that human identity is meaningful purposeful work, and individuals are not identified as women or men, just human based upon their work. Friedan believes work is what an individual does in his or her life; for example, snowboarding, songwriting, hockey, football etc. Friedan was an author, an activist, and the first president of the National Organization for Women.

In Friedan’s piece she stated, “And the women’s magazines, deploring the unhappy statistics about these young marriages, urged that courses on marriage, and marriage counselors, be installed in the high schools” (p. 10). This shows that America was pushing for women in this age to marry young and produce children even if she is unhappy with her marriage. Betty Friedan’s stance on this lifestyle for women was that is was destructive to a woman’s identity and belief in herself. In her piece she interviewed a woman who stated, “I begin to feel I have no personality. I’m a server of food and a putter-on of pants and a bedmaker, somebody who can be called on when you want something.

Females go through their whole lives without being noticed of what they do or did for men because they were and may still be seen as just a “keeper.” Woman stopped being known as the “Keeper” because in 1960, Betty Friedan fought back and females everywhere joined in to fight the oppression and the idea roles they were suppose to portray as housewives and

In the second half of the 1900s, the United States slowly camouflaged to a more gender-unified society. With that notion, women were desperate to reinforce their equalities and prove their capabilities. Therefore, the issuing dates of the two publications, Silences by Tillie Olsen and Still Just writing by Anne Tyler, effect the significance of the plots immensely. Thus, since the ultimate female task throughout generations was the bearing and rearing of offspring accompanied by mundane household chores, the introduction of corporate positions and professions appealed tremendously to the typical housewife. Yet, the juggling of the two roles of mother and career proved to be challenging for many.

Written by Betty Friedan, the book is highly associated with the revolutions that led to the women liberation movements. The chapter on the “Problem that has No Name,” explains the dilemma of women and the challenges they faced

In doing so, these working women began to have the ability to support themselves, and, therefore, tended to rely less on men. However, these women not only defied the workplace’s principles, but also condemned society’s gender

“Generally, men are socialized into believing that their essential role in life is to work outside the home and provide for the family while women are taught that their main role is to be homemakers” (Akotia and Anum 5024). The breadwinner is normally thought of as a man, but Lena puts a twist on that gender role. “You the head of this family. You run our lives like you want to” (Hansberry 1948). Lena breaks the gender role

The women were expected to create a happy home, guard the religion, and the morality of her family. The unmarried and married women who tried to seek work outside the home faced limited employment opportunities because of their gender. Women were expected to only focus on domestic duties and her role were limited to continue living in the man’s world. Women roles were expected to be in line with the culture and norms set by the society. The American culture perceived that women were not intellectually and emotionally stable to be involved in the complex world of work and, therefore, women did not take up leadership and political roles.

Despite its dull, ordinary setting, “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen is an extremely deep short story covering complex socio-economic issues spanning over two—very eventful—decades. The story shows how economic hardships could physically alter the stereotypical gender roles, while cultural traditions kept them mentally intact. When these two elements contradicted each other, they left women, like Tillie Olsen’s character, feeling emotionally responsible for the consequences. Although her husband left her and she was forced to assume the role of both the breadwinner and the homemaker at only nineteen years old, she blames herself for neglecting what was thought to be her primary duty as a woman: motherhood. As the reader can tell from

Women. Women’s involvement in the working world have contributed to many items that would be missing from the world today; if they had not been allowed to work.. Women have struggled with sexism in the workplace since before they were even given the chance to try to work. They were taught from a young age that their job was to provide children, cook, and clean for their husbands, while the husband worked and provided the money. What men did not know however was that women were capable of so much more(Jewell, Hannah).

During the 1890’s until today, the roles of women and their rights have severely changed. They have been inferior, submissive, and trapped by their marriage. Women have slowly evolved into individuals that have rights and can represent “feminine individuality”. The fact that they be intended to be house-caring women has changed.