Betty Friedan's Equality For Women

The issue of women’s rights and how different societies and cultures deal with it had been on the table for many centuries. In the United States of America during the 1800s, women began to move toward and demand getting equal rights as men, they decided to speak up and fight for their stolen rights. In the 1960s, continued working toward their goal, women broadened their activities through the women’s rights movement which aimed to help them in gaining their right to receive education, occupy the same jobs that were once titled only for men, and get an access to leadership positions. The women’s rights movement has a great impact on women today, although it started a long time ago, but it did not stop and women are reaping their fruit today,

“Who am I?” “What is my purpose?” “Is there something more than this?” During Betty Friedan’s time, these questions were all asked by housewives to themselves who were afflicted by the “problem with no name.” There was a disease spreading from household to household, gripping the lives of suburban housewives across America, and in the Feminine Mystique, Friedan documents and explores the problem with no name, its effects on American women, and how to cure and eradicate the plague.

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.

Emma Goldman and Betty Friedan are well known feminist. They both lived during the 20th century but were apart of different feminist waves. Goldman was considered a first wave feminist which had woman seeking for suffrage rights and other legal issues. Friedan was a part of the second wave which demanded sexuality and reproductive equality. The only difference they have is that they were of a different feminist wave but their texts’ have shown slight similarities.

American women in the late 1800’s received unequal treatment, even more so than in today’s society. Not only were they treated unfairly, they could not even vote until 1920. Moreover, they were unable to obtain certain jobs, and if they did get a job it was from the home. Furthermore, women had little to no say in their decisions. They often had their husbands either picked for them, or mutually agreed upon.

The Women’s Movement was a symbolic movement in achieving political and civil equality. It assisted women lifestyles in the United States, granting them equal opportunities as men. Therefore, the Equal Rights Amendment guaranteed equal rights with men and the Equal Pay Act guaranteed equal pay. But these opportunities rarely helped women since they were prohibited and discriminated from universities and communal school, young girls have to be taught at home by mothers due to the segregation from males and females. In the 1960s, organizations were predominantly constructed for women since they were driven away from society of men and can’t attend schools and colleges.

Women’s Rights were the great unfinished business of the 20th century. This movement saw two waves in the 1900s, the second wave coming in the 1960s. Women’s Rights grew as a singular grassroots movement, after having been systematically separated from the general Civil Rights efforts. Legislation played a defining role in shaping not only advances in Women’s Rights n the 1960s but in shaping what is known now as modern America. The world of the American woman at this time was incredibly limited due to subsequent societal standards seen following World War II.

“I raise up my voice- not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard…,” once said Malala Yousafzai. Women’s rights in the 1930s were a serious issue. Women had just received the right to vote, yet there was still many discriminatory actions towards women. This dramatic period in time took place during the Great Depression, which caused women’s rights to be overlooked.

In the years following its acknowledgement as a nation free from England, what would come to be known as the United States of America released a collective breath. That word, freedom, brought to light the dream that for many of its people had been just that. With the drafting of the Constitution 1787, many of the nation’s freedoms as well as the guidelines that accompanied them were explicitly introduced. While this document was a profound and necessary step forward for the country, the government, and many states, did not extend these rights to all persons. Minorities, especially blacks and women, were most often left out.

Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide, and formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the nineteenth century and feminist movement during the 20th century. In some countries, these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behavior, whereas in others they are ignored and suppressed. They differ from broader notions of human rights through claims of an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women and girls, in favor of men and boys.[1] Women constitute almost half of the world population. However, their enjoyment of rights equally with that of men is far from satisfactory. In every society from ancient to modern times, women

Tying into the African American Civil Rights Movement, many other previously disadvantaged demographics such as women began to push for social equality as well, leading to the rise of right liberalism within American society. For example, tired of being treated as “little more than pretty helpers who typed memos and fetched coffee,” women such as Kate Millett began to raise awareness about “sexual politics” (Henretta, 925). These efforts eventually culminated in the passing of Title IX in 1972, which changed the identity of American higher education; prior to Title IX, women’s opportunities in higher education were very limited, but now, “formerly all-male bastions such as Yale, Princeton, and the U.S. military academies admitted women undergraduates

Many women during the Antebellum period accepted their submissive roles forced onto them by society but some, like Emily Dickinson, rejected the norm. According to Barbara Welter’s writing, “The Cult of True Womanhood”, many young housewives during the 1820’s “did not think a woman should ‘feel and act for herself’” (Welter 236). Emily Dickinson, an American poet, wrote about this public opinion in her poem “My Life had stood-a Loaded Gun”. In the poem, the loaded gun represents a woman who was waiting “till a Day