Often, the voice the loudest is interpreted as the voice of the masses. This is the case with Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. That doesn’t dismiss its awe-inspiring influence; it is still responsible for much of the effort put into the second wave of feminism back in the 60s. Her book sold 1.4 million copies of its first printing, a feat in itself that verifies its influence. Friedan used her book to persuade women to have a common goal, and by doing so their culminating voices became the
put down, and forced into things they no longer wanted to do. Women did NOT have any rights against sexual harassment, even if it did happen, they had NO say in anything that happened to them.. One person who helped in this crisis against feminism is, Betty Friedan, she wrote the book “The Feminine Mystique,” which argued that women should NOT have an ideal image, created by man, forced upon them. Why are women named after things that are destructive? Hurricanes have no identification of being female
Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and bell hook’s Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center have changed the way people think about feminism. Friedan’s book was written in the 1960s and talked mostly about housewives. It talked about the boredom they faced and how they wanted more out of life. Her book revolutionized the way people looked at feminism and people had begun to ask their mothers, sisters, daughters how they felt about restritive gender roles. Women were being looked as human beings
got tears in my eyes with sheer relief that my own inner turmoil is shared with other women,” (Friedan 23). Women across America followed the particular journey of growing up learning how to become great housewives. “The happy housewife heroine” was what it was referred to as. Women had known no different then being a housewife, so they grieved in silence. It wasn’t until a feminist named Betty Friedan brought to light the idea that women can become so much more than just a servant to their husbands
Marriage and the 1960-1970s Women’s Movement Historically women have faced a lot of pressure to get married and have children at a young age due to both economic necessity and societal expectations. At the start of the 1960s writers began to question and critique the societal expectations of women and the median age women got marriage began to rise. Films reflected changing cultural attitudes about gender, sexuality, and a woman’s societal role. Women began to consider their individual personhood
compared to men and had to follow societal influences that dictated how they were going to spend their life. Women did not live for themselves but as a caretaker of men, looking and cleaning up after them before the wave of feminism emerged. The women’s rights movement also known as “second