Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique

Resistance and subversion : the American feminist press in the 1970s Traditional women’s magazines Mass media represent a powerful force in modern societies as they shape public discourse and influence public opinion by transmitting social, political and cultural values. For decades, women’s representation in mediated popular culture has been a central problem because of the gendered ideologies it circulated. From the 1880s to the 1970s, American women’s magazines played a significant role in disseminating the dominant ideology and patriarchal order, perpetuating the myths of female disposability and domesticity, and maintaining traditional images of femininity. Such magazines as The Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, The Woman’s

Women working wasn 't a topic usually discussed because women weren’t really allowed to voice their opinion on many topics that were important to them. This was seen as off putting and unacceptable. Men basically ruled women, women had to run every idea or opinion by their husband and nine times out of ten it wasn 't even really listened to or acknowledged. In the 60’s the movement came to a head, even so women were still thought to be too emotional for jobs of a man. Women were not taken seriously by men and rarely appreciated, just demeaned and seen as a lesser group of individuals.

Before the women’s rights movement gained momentum, women were treated unfairly, so they united together to fight for their rights. During the nineteenth century, women lacked many basic, human rights and were often belittled by men because it was believed they could not be as superior as them. Women were discriminated in law, religion, education, politics, and professions (Finkelman 405). Unfortunately, there is a lengthy list of rights women didn’t obtain. Once the reform movement began, however, abolitionist women realized their rights could be compared to those of slaves, and a few bold women decided to do something about the inequality of men and women (Finkelman 405).

Research Paper Historically and in today’s society, women have disadvantages as compared to their male counterparts while in the workplace. Traditionally in the Islamic cultures, women were not given equal rights to their male counterparts and not able to achieve the goals and careers that men did. Even after women gain rights, they still do not have the same rights as men. It has nothing to do with talent or intelligence, but only gender. In our society today, women are treated differently because of their gender, are not given raises that commensurate with their station and often make less compensation than men.

After fifty-five years, we look back at the year 1963 that signaled the beginning of the feminist movement. The feminist movement lead to many changes in the society for women, such as reproductive rights, maternity leave, equal pay, women’s suffrage and a decrease in domestic violence, sexual violence and sexual harassment. All these changes have fallen under the label of feminism and the feminist movement. In response to this, author Simone de Beauvoir, who was a journalist and philosopher talks about the “Eternal Feminine” in her book, “The Second Sex.” “The Second Sex” is considered a pioneering work of the modern feminism movement because of how the author radically challenges political and existential theory. Yet, its most enduring impact is on how women understand themselves, their relationships, their place in society, and the construction of gender.

The inequality of women has been a long-lasting issue since its existence, with the issue still persisting today. Women have gained more rights over time in great part to efforts made by feminists, however, much progress still needs to be made. Mary Wollstonecraft, often cited as one of the founding feminist philosophers, is a notable feminist whose advocacy and ideas on femininity have acted as a strong influence for the modern conception of feminism. One of Wollstonecraft’s most prominent works in regards to feminism is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In the piece, Wollstonecraft uses and critiques philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s work titled Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, in order to build a case in defense of a woman’s

Anne M. Valk’s Radical Sisters examines the complexity of the black civil rights campaigns and second-wave feminism in Washington, D.C. during the 1960s and 1970s. Throughout the book, she explores the different relationships between numerous grass-roots movements and organizations, such as the D.C. Area Feminist Alliance, D.C. Women 's Liberation Movement, and Gay Liberation Front. Valk illustrates how various different women 's groups worked together, and not so together, during the "second wave" of feminism. Each chapter explains a different story of how despite these differences, there were many of the same ideas and practices between these various women 's organizations. The first chapter tells the story of Mary Treadwell, a middle-class African American woman that co-founded Pride, Inc. an organization for poor, young black men, and was involved with the antiwar movement, prison reform, and reproductive rights.

Women struggled with the limited clothing options, few job opportunities, had unrealistic beauty standards, and did not have the ability to achieve a higher education. The women’s rights movement improved women’s lives by breaking stereotypes and changing women’s ideals. The women of the 20th century, often struggled with beauty and fashion restricting their clothing options. Women were often described to be weak and a symbol of being delicate and fragile. In the 50’s, women were simply expected to get married to a wealthy man, stay at home, and raise children while her husband worked to provide for the family.

At an early stage, women were just “housewives”, they were not allowed to express themselves openly, to compete for academic positions and even more they did not have the right to vote. Still, the start of the twentieth century caused changes in nearly every area of women’s everyday life, from the domestic to the public field. An unprecedented amount of women had begun to work in government from the 1930s. However, these political achievements may additionally have had an important effect on the world’s population, but they had little impact on the enormous majority of American women, who sustained to be the conventional parts as partners of men and mothers. The widespread assumption was that the women have to be at home.

“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.” a quote said by Timothy leary a former male american psychologist and writer. In the early 1900’s women did not have the simple right of voting, during those times men were given all the power even if they were abusive towards women it was acceptable. Now a days women have overcome many of these obstacles, not only with the right to vote but by having one of the biggest names in history are women. Everyone thinks that there is nothing but equal rights and everyone if given what they deserve. However there are a lot of people who are opposed to the idea of gender equality and think that it is ridiculous but it is one of the most important things to have for two main reasons.