The second women’s movement took place in the years after the events of the Second World War and this movement was about ending the mistreatment of women at work
In her essay, “The Importance of Work,” from The Feminine Mystique published in 1963, Betty Friedan confronts American women’s search for identity. Throughout the novel, Betty Friedan breaks new ground, concocting the idea that women can discover personal fulfillment by straying away from their original roles. Friedan ponders on the idea that The Feminine Mystique is the cause for a vast majority of women during that time period to feel confined by their occupations around the house; therefore, restricting them from discovering who they are as women. Friedan’s novel is well known for creating a different kind of feminism and rousing various women across the nation.
The National Organization for Women aimed to promote women 's ideas, eliminate discrimination, and protect the equal rights of women in all aspects of life. Friedan ignited the second wave of American feminism by writing The Feminine Mystique. Friedan 's audience would most likely be women who want their rights and are annoyed with the housewife role. In her article, "The Importance of Work," Friedan uses several means of persuasion and different types of rhetorical strategies to describe the change in human identity. Friedan uses logos, the ability to convince her audience by logic and reasoning, throughout her article to describe facts that took place in 1963.
Or the amazing Sylvia Rivera who fought for feminism but also the LGBTQ community. And Betty Friedan who proved in her novel, The Feminine Mystique that women can do so much more than society says. All of these women and many many more have impacted the way feminism has developed and turned into what it is now and still continue to do so. The women's movement was also started by what these women did.
Realizing Your Full Potential The Feminine Mystique, written by Betty Friedan, ignited a wave of feminism over the United States. The non-fiction novel opened the eyes of many women to continue their dreams instead of settling down to become a housewife. I would recommend The Feminine Mystique to people who struggle with trying to accomplish their dreams.
For example, women work in heavy industry which in the old days these jobs are only for men. Before World War II happened women’s lives were very focused on the family, they were expected to be a house wife or as a mother after married. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan were published in 1963. This book questioned the role of the middle-class women as wives and mothers. It also begins the Women’s Liberation Movement.
BETTY FRIEDAN “THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE AND THE WOMEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT” (1963) Through history, women have not always had what we proudly have now, freedom, rights, liberty, influence, and power. In a period of time women did not had their destiny and life in their own hands, it was in the hands of their parents, after them husband and later kids and husband but never on their own. But in 1963 everything changed in favor to women, it was not easy, but it was the beginning of a revolution for women rights and freedom. All of this began thanks to Betty Friedan and her book “The Feminine Mystique”.
In her book, The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan exposes the “problem that has no name,” which is the sense of dissatisfaction and unfulfillment experienced by many women in the 1950s and 1960s. This problem stems from the societal expectation that women should find fulfillment solely through their roles as wives and mothers. As Friedan writes, “The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States” (Friedan 476).
America has her problems with inequality when it comes to women’s social conduct in which they belong in society. Does a women gain importance from being independent and financially competent in society or do women who aren’t a part of the female work force less of a human than her fellow women. The 1950s society was split on the issue of where women actually fit in our society after their liberations in the 1920s with gaining their right to vote, they began to have a voice in society without much progress in the 1940s had the liberation of being working and having a disposable income for the first time in their lives and being told you need to be in the home with the children this created a tremor before the feminist earthquake. Two major theories that abide with women’s rights these are functionalism and feminism. The first theory inhibits functionalism this discusses what the roles of women in 1950s society.
Friedan Betty also known as Betty Naomi Goldstein commonly considered as one of the founding mothers of feminism's Second Wave. Friedan while remaining at home to care for her family she felt impatient as a homemaker and developed curiosity if other women felt
Today in society women are viewed as strong, independent people who have many opportunities and choices regarding how they want to live. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case. In most of the early 1900’s, being a wife and a mother was the only option for women, and those who did not like that path were considered “unfeminine.” During the 1950’s and 1960’s, this began to change. Women 's liberation groups formed such as the New York Radical Women, and many powerful leaders emerged, such as Gloria Steinem, Robin Morgan, and Betty Friedan.
With her Smith College education, graduating summa cum laude (Parry, 2010), and her passion for journalism, Friedan began to feel something was missing in a life of marriage and motherhood. Moreover, it was the questionnaire from her 1957 Smith College reunion, that revealed some unsettling results; that women were dissatisfied with giving up work, and education for motherhood (Parry, 2010) that set her determination to set a new standard for women, hence, The Feminine Mystique. With her book, she inspired thousands of women to assess themselves in a different light. Thanks to Friedan, women now believed they had a choice and the power to make choices, to be their own person, to be joyful, to learn, to work, be taken seriously, and no longer wear a false mask.
The book reveals the private angst which many middle class women were experiencing in the 1950’s as unwaged housewives and consumers. ‘Mystique’ was Friedan’s term for the ‘problem with no name’ – the psychic distress experienced by women who had no public careers and were immured in domestic concerns. The book is based in part on a survey of Smith College graduates. The book led to the birth of America’s largest Organization- NOW (National Women’s Organization) in 1966.
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.
The Second Wave was a very powerful, social, and political movement that bettered the lives of women. It extended from the outlook of the anti-war and civil rights movements and the increasing self-consciousness of many of the minority groups around the world. Similar to the anti-slavery movement that happened in the nineteenth century, the modern movement encouraged activism of all sorts. This lead to the rise of feminism in the mid to late 60s, especially community-based methods of women’s liberation, was based partly on young women recognizing sexism within much of the movements, largely made up of male-dominated groups like Students for a Democratic Society, among others. The voice of the second wave was increasingly sweeping the nation.
