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The Feminine Mystique Summary

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In the 1960s women were limited in almost every aspect from their work place to their families. During this time period about 38% of women who worked mostly occupied the jobs as teachers, nurse, or secretaries. In 1962 a women by the name of Betty Friedan wrote a book called “The Feminine Mystique”. This book focused on college educated housewives who felt trapped in the system. Friedan shocked the world by contradicting the role of what a housewife is supposed to do. She also called females to seek fulfillment of taking a job outside of the house. Friedan’s had such an impact on women that its credited for being the start of the “second wave” of the American feminist movement. Now women would take a stand for their equality right in America. The movement in the 1960s and 1970s was mainly focused on diminishing workplace inequality, such as wages and better jobs. In 1964, …show more content…

Connecticut (1965). The Supreme Court ruled that the uses of contraceptives are banned because they violated the right to martial privacy. Married women were guaranteed the right to use contraceptives by the right to privacy. Although the use of contraceptives was not addressed for women outside of marriage, this still was leading to more progress in women rights. This case led on to the Eisenstadt v. Baird case in 1972. While the Griswold v. Connecticut case showcased married women and contraceptives; the Eisenstadt v. Baird focused not just on married women. This case focused on women that were single that also wanted the same advantage as married women were granted. Also in 1970 in the Shultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. the U.S court rules that both men and women jobs need to be equal to fall under the protection of the Equal Pay Act. This allows women to receive the same amount of salary that a man would get having the same job, and they cannot change the job titles in order to pay a man

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148 Words | 1 Pages

In 1967, William Baird was arrested after giving away vaginal foam to a 19 year old woman following a lecture at Boston University about contraceptives and over-population. At the time, in Massachusetts, it was felony offense to disburse birth control methods to unmarried men or women. Eventually, Eisenstadt v. Baird was heard in the United States Supreme Court in 1972. In a 6-to-1 judgement, the Court ruled against the Massachusetts statute, but it was not in aggreeance with the due process of Griswold v. Connecticut, instead it was the Equal Protection Clause that was the deciding factor as reported by Justice William J. Brennan.

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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

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After WWII, women were expected to go back to their traditional roles In reality, many women took jobs outside the home to help pay bills and make a living. Economic boom = more workers Women were paid lower and limited to jobs such as teachers, nurses or secretary In 1962, Betty Friedan 's book The Feminine Mystique captured the frustration and despair of a generation of college-educated housewives who felt trapped and unfulfilled. While Friedan 's writing largely spoke to an audience of educated women, her work had sparked the "second wave" of the feminist movement.

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846 Words | 4 Pages

Society has always painted the picture of a “traditional” woman: stay home, raise the children, keep the house, be nurturing, and in a multitude of ways, contribute to American society. However the 1920’s marked the birth

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413 Words | 2 Pages

Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court struck down a law barring the use of contraceptives by married couples. In Griswold for the first time the Supreme Court recognized that couples, at least married couples, had a right to privacy, drawing on the Fourth Amendment's protection of private homes from searches and seizures without a warrant based on probable cause, the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of due process of law in the states, and the Ninth Amendment's assurance that rights not specified in the Constitution are "retained by the people". Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) expanded the scope of sexual privacy rights to unmarried persons. In 1973, the choice whether to have an abortion was found to be protected by the Constitution in Roe v. Wade

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1088 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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1454 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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290 Words | 2 Pages

In 1966, Betty Friedan wrote a document called “Statement of Purpose” which helped fight equality for women to be treated as equals with men. This document spoke out for feminists during, what was called, the “second wave”, of feminism. The audience of this document was targeted towards people who opposed equal rights for women and men. Women were often expected to stay home to take care of their children, and if they were employed they were often paid a significant amount less than men. In the document, it states, “…fulltime women workers today earn on the average only 60% of what men earn…”

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1308 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout history women have challenged patriarchal norms, changing the standards. In the book, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, women are constantly told what they should do, and what they should want. Ness should want to work inside the house, Abena should want to marry for power, and Marjorie should want to be asked to prom. However, unlike other women characters in the book, these three characters challenged their assumed positions as women and in doing so gave their families and men in their lives a new perspective. Every generation made strides in women’s rights, but even as rights and laws adapted to new times, there were still limitations on women that they needed to overcome.

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577 Words | 3 Pages

Two supreme court cases that gave women choices over body were:Griswold v Connecticut (1965), dealt with contraception, Roe v Wade guaranteed a woman’s right to abortion (at least in the first

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845 Words | 4 Pages

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

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1349 Words | 6 Pages

In the last seventy years, women in America have made great strides toward equality, which has dramatically changed their role in society. In days that seem long past, women were expected to be doting mothers, immaculate housekeepers, and submissive wives. These roles were the primary, if not only, responsibilities of any woman prior to the 1940s. However, since the post-war era, the roles, responsibilities, and expectations of women have evolved in leaps and bounds. In the first half of the twentieth century, women were not wanted, or needed, to be a part of the workforce.

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2208 Words | 9 Pages

Friedan’s Chapter One and Two Karly Marin Sacramento State University Communication Studies Major Gender Ideology Introduction Women play a pivotal role in the growth and development of social, economic and political spheres. There are countable women in the history of the world who have made remarkable contributions to the various spheres. Their accounts are recorded in books, magazines and journals amongst others. The Feminine Mystique is one of the books that received a wide audience in the 1950s.

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1501 Words | 7 Pages

It was not until 1963 the Feminine Mystique was written and published by Betty Friedan which was claimed to start the women’s rights movement of the 1960s “The Feminine Mystique is remembered as the book that “started” the women 's movement and 1960s feminism in the United States.” In her book Friedan described her life as a typical housewife of the 1960s, she argued that women’s role was not just to be housewives and do housework, but instead they are a lot more important than that; she also called women to recognize their potential, to speak up and to aspire to work in professional jobs and become equal to men, “She also helped advance the women’s rights movement as one of the founders of the National

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791 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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