Betty Friedan Gender

Words: 945
Pages: 4
Open Document
Adrianna Ronquillo
Professor Gunn
Intro to Gender, Race, and Sexuality
18 March 2018 Betty Friedan brought to light in the 1960s “The Problem that Has No Name,” describing the things many women face and struggle with. According to her, the “problem” has many different components. One of them, is that women being forced to live their lives as a housewife, with no other job or opportunities, leaves them feeling empty and unfulfilled. They live each day doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids and their husband. This is not fulfilling to them and they start to question their life and happiness. Many women claimed to “have no personality…nothing to look forward to…don’t feel alive,” and they thought they were the only ones to …show more content…
Women were expected to “devote their lives from earliest girlhood to finding a husband and bearing children” (Friedan 1). This expectation made many women feel as though they must give up their dreams so they could find a husband and be the “perfect woman.” Women who sought otherwise, would be looked down on. They were not given the chance, as men did, to look for a job they wanted, receive higher education, and other independent rights. This problem caused the previous problem because women feeling the need to fit certain expectations caused them to give up on their dreams and futures, leaving them feel less of a …show more content…
Something that was often overlooked was the inequality between races. Not only was there inequality between black and white people, but of people of different races and ethnicities as well. “The problem with no name” for races is the outright denial of racism. People— mainly those who are underlying racist— think that racism is not a problem, that it does not exist. Cultural appropriation plays a big factor. bell hooks describes how white people “do not see themselves as perpetuating racism. To them the most potent indication of that change is the frank expression of longing, the open declaration of desire, the need to be intimate with dark Others” (4). People think that by wanting to be like another race, or using symbols from different cultures, shows that they have accepted other races, therefore racism is resolved. That is the problem. People do not realize they are being racist, by trying not to be racist. They use their excuse to “not being racist” as a way to benefit themselves— that does not make the racism go away, it adds to it. bell hooks gives a great example: “Getting a bit of the Other, in this case engaging in sexual encounters with non-white females, was considered a ritual of transcendence, a movement out into a world of difference that would transform, an acceptable rite
Show More

Related Documents: Betty Friedan Gender

Betty Friedan Research Paper

Betty Friedan opened the door for women to fight for gender equality, and to prove that women’s rights are valid. Betty Friedan wrote her book The Feminine Mystique in 1963, Betty Friedan and her book The Feminine Mystique paved the way for women’s rights in America throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Betty Friedan, before her fame, was born February 4, 1921, in Peoria, IL. As a child, Friedan had a difficult childhood, with Betty and her mother Miriam Horwitz Goldstein. Later in…

Words 274 - Pages 2

Essay on United States and Equal Pay Act

Roosevelt as chairwoman. 1963 Betty Friedan publishes her highly influential book The Feminine Mystique, which describes the dissatisfaction felt by middle-class American housewives with the narrow role imposed on them by society. Congress passes the Equal Pay Act, making it illegal for employers to pay a woman less than what a man would receive for the same job. 1966 The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded by a group of feminists including Betty Friedan The largest women's rights…

Words 425 - Pages 2

Second Red Scare Betty Friedan Summary

in counterculture movements due to the increased pressure to remain anti-radical in the face of the Second Red Scare. Daniel Horowitz exemplifies this problem within his analysis of Betty Friedan’s shift from her time at UE News, to her less radical writings for mass circulation magazines in 1955. At UE News, Friedan discussed corporations’ systematic discrimination against women, cultural and economic sources of women’s oppression, the special difficulties of double discrimination faced by racialized…

Words 577 - Pages 3

Marriage Sexual Revolution

at a young age due to economic necessity and societal expectations. However, due to the sexual revolution and feminist ideologies of the 1960s and 70s gender roles were being challenged. The median age at marriage began to rise (“The History of Marriage”). Writers began to question societal expectations of women and films discussed ideas of gender roles and sexuality within marriage. Women began to consider individual personhood and freedoms apart from being a mother, wife, and homemaker. In the…

Words 696 - Pages 3

Notes on betty friedan Essay

Selling Sex, Gender, and the AmericanDream Critical Reading and Reflection Handout Part I: Critical Reading The Author: (Only needs to be completed once per author) Who is the author? Betty Friedan What is their disciplinary background? (historian, sociologist, cultural critic, etc.) Friedan was an author, activist and feminist. • Wrote the Feminine Mystique in 1963 • She also wrote five other books and wrote for many magazines and newspapers • Founded and was the first president…

Words 1213 - Pages 5

How Truman's Media Kept America Blind

Society’s main concern from 1947 until the mid 1950s was having the knowledge that the U.S. and Soviets had types of weapons that can obliterate them. On top of the political and economic battles the Cold War faced, America became blind of different gender roles, consumer culture, and entertainment essentially coming from the government regulated media, or from information that should have been undeniably censored. The government chose to use different tactics to prevent chaos within the country’s…

Words 1802 - Pages 8

Betty Friedan Women In The 1950s

In the early 1950s, activists like Betty Friedan or Edith Stern introduced new ways of thinking for a woman in a male dominated society. The first sparks of feminism ignited a flame that would start the huge women’s liberation movement in the 70s. Women joined together, demanding the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. They would no longer be satisfied without full constitutional rights. In the 1950’s and 1960’s American society’s view on the woman’s place reflected a traditional…

Words 1388 - Pages 6

1960s Gender Roles

For the longest time in United States, the typical household consisted of gender defined roles; the men were regarded as breadwinners and women were seen as homemakers. While the families were well sustained on just a male income, the women had many responsibilities at home. Of the responsibilities that women held, that of being a mother was of utmost importance. Books like Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care stated that a mother’s undivided attention was needed for her child’s wellbeing. Such views…

Words 728 - Pages 3

Freudian Ideas In Ralph Waldo Ellison's Invisible Man

Friedan was an inspiring advocate for women’s rights, and she worked tirelessly to help society understand that their expectations and views on what women were supposed to do and be, were nothing but a social construct that could and should be broken. Not only did she beautifully break down the concept of “penis envy” and other Freudian ideas in The Feminine Mystique, she also became one of the founders of the National Organization for Women to advance women’s rights and gender equity. The…

Words 825 - Pages 4

Essay women rights

Women’s Rights October 5, 2013 Betty Friedan wrote that “the only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own.” The message here is that women need more than just a husband, children, and a home to feel fulfilled; women need independence and creative outlets, unrestrained by the pressures of society. Throughout much of history, women have struggled with the limited roles society imposed on them. The…

Words 1124 - Pages 5