Ruth Rosen Women's Rights Movement

As Ruth Rosen explains throughout her book, The World Split Open, the Women’s Rights Movement certainly resulted in significant changes in the way Americans perceived the woman’s role in a variety of situations. From home to academia to politics, the women’s movement helped to make the changes necessary so that women would be respected and treated as equals in any field they chose to pursue. Of the changes that stemmed from the movement in the 1970s, the unity and collaboration that exists among women is one of the most historically significant because of the way it influenced so many women from vastly different lifestyles. To begin, Rosen often discussed the “nameless” problems that plagued women throughout the 1950s and into the 60s. Too often, millions of

Women’s rights should not be divided by liberal or conservative thought, but since the public perceived New Left radicals as essentially the same as feminists, it created another divide between liberal and conservatives. ¬Since the 1960s, the government’s policies on women’s rights have changed slightly, but the downfall of these changes is that much of what feminists worked towards in the 60s and 70s is possible in theory, but had not yet come to fruition. The best example Rosen gave was the new idea of the working mom “superwoman” who did it all (p. 295), but even though more people accepted that idea, men stepping in to assist women at home was still unthinkable. The movement is not only about woman gaining more freedom, but also about men and women being viewed as equals regardless of what they do. While conservatives often view this as an infringement on men’s rights, that is not the purpose of the movement, so the liberal-conservative dichotomy is not an effective way to examine the Women’s Rights